A man on a Sydney-bound flight allegedly tried to open the emergency exit door on two separate occasions before passengers and cabin crew wrestled him to the ground and managed to restrain him.
The 46-year-old Jordanian national has been two counts of endangering the safety of an aircraft, as well as one count of assaulting a member of crew after he attacked a flight attendant during the terrifying incident.
According to the Australian Federal Police, the incident occurred on April 5 as the plane was flying at around 38,000 feet from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Syndey.
The man initially attempted to open one of the emergency exit doors at the rear of the aircraft before the cabin crew escorted him to a seat in the middle of the plane. A short time later, the man then attempted to open a second door nearby.
At this point, passengers and cabin crew rushed to restrain the man, during which he allegedly assaulted one of the flight attendants.
“The actions of this man could have had tragic consequences, and passengers and airplane staff shouldn’t have to put up with unruly, violent, or dangerous behavior on flights,” Detective Acting Superintendent Davina Copelin from the AFP commented.
“The AFP will not hesitate to take action against people who engage in criminal behavior on airplanes, especially where this behavior has the potential to endanger the safety of passengers, crew, or the flight itself,” Copelin continued.
If found guilty, the suspect faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment for both offenses.
At cruising altitude, it is impossible to open an emergency exit door of a commercial airliner as the pressure difference between the thinner outside air and the pressured cabin secures the door firmly in place.
However, tampering with the door opening handle could damage the inflatable slide, which could cause a serious safety risk in the event of an emergency incident that required an evacuation via the slides.
Some airplanes are also fitted with ‘flight locks’ that secure the emergency exit door in place whenever the plane reaches a certain speed, although this feature is not included on all aircraft.
At lower altitudes, where there isn’t a big pressure difference between the outside and inside of the cabin, it is, therefore, possible to open the emergency exit door in flight on some aircraft.
One of the most famous recent incidents of this happening occurred in 2023 when a passenger managed to open the emergency exit door of an Asiana Airbus A321 aircraft during the final descent of a domestic flight in South Korea.
The suspect in this now infamous incident was sitting adjacent to a mid-cabin emergency exit door, which was not directly supervised by a crew member.
Although a flight attendant was sitting on the opposite side of the cabin, the crew did not initially suspect that one of the passengers was responsible for opening the door and assumed there was a technical fault with the plane. It was only when the passenger turned himself in that anyone realized what had actually happened.
In a similar incident in February 2024, a man onboard an American Airlines Boeing 737 attempted to open the overwing ‘self-help’ exit as the plane was still climbing out of Albuquerque.
Passengers felt a “gush of wind” as the man managed to partially open the exit before being restrained by passengers.
