On Thursday, an Air Congo flight arrived at Kindu Airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and passengers sat on the Boeing 737-800 for hours because the airine couldn’t find stairs to let them off. Eventually, passengers got so fed up waiting that they exited the plane themselves – by jumping from the door of the aircraft onto the tarmac.
The forward passenger door (1L/1R) of a 737 is about 11 feet off the ground. No injuries have been confirmed – even though it looks like they’re doing the drop with carry-on bags.
At Kindu Airport (KND), (Maniema) of Democratic Republic of the Congo, passengers of Air Congo company were forced to jump from the Door to get out of the plane as a Passenger Stairs was not made available after hours of waiting inside the cabin post arrival at the gate on… pic.twitter.com/MYAUywwSlD
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) December 19, 2025
With no air stairs available, that leaves three options:
- Just wait – however long it takes
- Tow the aircraft to available stairs
- Emergency evacuation slides – not something that’s usually to expedite getting off the plane under normal circumstances, and something that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
“Just jump” is not considered one of the usual options. There’s no good reason for passengers to be free-climbing off a 737 door. It’s a significant breakdown in ground handling and crew control of the deplaning process.
Air Congo, based in Kinshasa, is one year old. At Kindu airport near the Lualaba River, the carrier operates flights to both Kinshasa and Kisangani. The carrier operates two Boeing 737-800s leased from Ethiopian Airlines, and has 2 ATR 72s coming from Ethiopian as well. They have plans to grow the fleet to six to ten planes, and have talked about 787 flights to places like Paris, Dubai, Brussels and Johannesburg.
We’ve certainly seen passengers leave planes in unorthodox ways before. For instance:
- During a long tarmac delay an American Airlines pssenger once decided to expedite getting off the aircraft by calling 911.
- Another American Airlines passenger bit a flight attendant’s hand, opened the galley door, and jumped onto the tarmac.
- And an American Airlines passenger, who couldn’t take a delay from Charlotte to Baltimore anymore, opened the exit door and popped the slide.
- Over at Southwest, a passenger jumped out of a moving plane, ran across the Phoenix airport tarmac, and locked himself inside a fire station.
However I don’t know that I’ve seen everyone just take a free fall out the exits in a non-emergency situation.
Meh, TBH, actually pretty ‘tame’ for DR Congo…
Good way to break both your legs, back and/or neck. So, you made it off the plane and now you’re paralyzed for the rest of your life. Can’t imagine the health care there is top notch. Can’t cure stupid.
Another day in the DRC, nothing to see here, move along
Here’s one case where you’re glad it’s a 737. (Lower to the ground that most non-commuter jets)
If it was an ex-FR jet, they would have the built in stairs
@This comes to mind — For real. One case where a CRJ would’ve been even better. 757 would’ve been worse.
Rookies! Go out the over wing exits, slide down the wing. About a 5 foot drop.
The logistics of airplane management is more of an art than a science. The inability of airports to get stairs or walking ramps is becoming more common around the world. The Cohen Security Consortium LLC recommends that airlines incorporate more AI to fill the gap in personnel, not replace knowledgeable staff, to manage theses attributes of the airport. Follow us on social media to learn more.
Just pull the emergency slide.
All of that time and no one figured out how to tie together clothes, blankets, whatever to make a rope to get down easier.
Uh, bring over a f**g ladder?
The big question here is why was the plane door ever opened with no stairs in sight.
If it’s 11 feet from the ground, if you hang down, for a person who is 5.5′ tall, that would put your feet about 3.5′ from the ground, and probably closer depending on arm length. Not a bad jump.