Delta passenger arrested after allegedly opening exit door, using emergency slide

A man has been arrested after he allegedly opened a plane’s emergency exit door and slid down the slide minutes before takeoff.

A Delta Air Lines passenger on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport has been arrested for allegedly opening an emergency exit door aboard the plane and causing the plane’s emergency slide to be activated prior to takeoff.

Los Angeles Airport Police said at about 10am EST on Saturday (1am AEDT on Sunday), an unidentified passenger, wearing a striped red and navy blue sweater with black pants, rushed to the front of the plane while the plane was pushing away from the gate and asked the flight attendant, “what do I do now?”, Fox News reports.

Passengers told FOX 11 that the flight attendant insisted that the man sit down, but he ran from the Delta Air Lines flight attendant and went to the plane’s emergency exit doors, turned the latch, opened the door, and slid down the deployed emergency slide.

The plane was forced to stop, and passengers told FOX 11 that the man jumped onto the back of a baggage cart, where luggage workers held him down until LAX Police got there.

Police detained the unidentified passenger who allegedly opened an emergency exit door aboard the plane. Picture: Gillian Sheldon via Twitter

“He is being taken to a local hospital for a mental evaluation,” Sgt. Devin Feldman said.

The Los Angeles Airport Police said that the FBI had been notified about the event.

“Airport Police responded and detained the passenger for further investigation. Due to the circumstances, FBI was notified,” Los Angeles Airport Police told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“Delta flight 1714 operating from Los Angeles to Seattle returned to the gate due to an unruly passenger. The aircraft was holding to taxi for takeoff when the passenger exited the aircraft and was initially detained by Delta staff ahead of being arrested by local law enforcement.” Delta Air Lines said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Customers are being re-accommodated on a new aircraft, and we apologise for the inconvenience and delay in their travel plans.”

Law enforcement came aboard the Delta Air Lines flight and removed the passenger. Picture: Gillian Sheldon via Twitter

The plane returned to the gate and passengers were escorted off and transported to another plane. Picture: Gillian Sheldon via Twitter

“Delta was great. The flight attendants were amazing,” said Gillian Sheldon, who was on the plane.

She told FOX 11 that the whole thing happened so fast that no one had any time to react.

“You always tell yourself, when you see these things on TV, that I would have done this or that, but honestly, it was so quick, there was no way to react,” she said.

“Just glad it didn’t happen when we were midair, or it would have been a whole different outcome.”

Following the incident, passengers on the Delta Air Lines plane were escorted off and moved to another plane.

The flight was heading from LAX to Seattle, Washington and according to FlightAware.com the flight was three hours delayed due to the incident.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission