A passenger on a packed Iberia flight from Paris Orly Airport to Madrid allegedly attacked a flight attendant and managed to open one of the emergency exits before jumping onto the tarmac below as the plane was taxiing for takeoff on Friday evening.
Iberia flight IB578 left the gate pretty much on time at around 5:20 pm on February 7, but as it was taxiing to the runway, a passenger got up from his seat and made his way to the front of the plane where he attempted to open an emergency exit.
One of the flight attendants intervened and tried to stop the man from interfering with the exit, but she ended up being assaulted by the passenger, who then went on to successfully open the exit.
With the engines of the Airbus A320 still running, the man jumped 11.5 feet from the open doorway to the tarmac below before airport emergency responders raced to the scene to detain him.
Surprisingly, despite the seriousness of the incident, the flight still departed for Madrid the same day, albeit with a significant delay of five hours, eventually arriving in the Spanish capital just before midnight.
The three-year-old aircraft then had to be taken out of service for a short period before it was given the all-clear and put back into operation on Saturday afternoon.
Iberia did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it is currently not known whether the airline intends to press charges against the passenger. The condition of the flight attendant who was allegedly attacked by the passenger has also not been revealed.
This is the second time in just three months that a passenger onboard an Iberia jet has opened the emergency exit prior to takeoff for no apparent reason. In December, a nervous flyer on an Iberia Express flight from Ibiza to Madrid let their fear of flying get the better of them and deployed an emergency slide just as the plane was preparing for departure.
In that incident, the flight attendants managed to pull the passenger back from the exit door and stop them from jumping down the slide, although tense scenes quickly unfolded as the other passengers tired of the wait to see if the slide could be fixed to allow the plane to continue its journey.
Ultimately, the flight ended up getting scrapped and passengers had to be rebooked onto alternative flights.
