Passenger opens plane emergency exit door and walks on wing

Man crawled over two rows of fellow customers to reach the emergency exit panel

A United Airlines Boeing 767-300 (Getty Images)

Passengers on a United Airlines flight watched in disbelief on Monday as a fellow traveller was able to open a plane’s emergency exit door and walk on to the aircraft’s wing.

United flight 2478 from San Diego had landed at Chicago O’Hare shortly after 4am when the incident occurred.

As the plane taxied to gate B3, the unidentified male passenger pulled open the emergency exit and climb out onto the wing, before he “slid down onto the airfield” and was pulled into custody by local police.

A fellow passenger, Mary-Ellen Eagleton, told Chicago’s WGN9 news channel that others on the plane had shouted “No! no! no!” and a flight attendant had quickly run down the aisle to ask what had happened.

“Everyone was just surprised and kind of shocked,” she said.

“He had opened the door to the plane and we weren’t even at the gate yet.”

She said the man had not been acting erratically on the flight, and that as it had been a red-eye service, most passengers had been sleeping.

“Everybody was just kind of in shock, we just didn’t know why he would have done that.”

More bizarrely, she claimed the man had not been in the seat next to the emergency exit panel. He had been seated in a middle seat of the opposite row, and had reportedly crawled over the passenger in the aisle next to him, before clambering across the whole row beside the emergency exit in order to open it.

Ms Eagleton said that those seated next to the man had stayed behind after landing to talk to police.

No explanation has yet been given for the man’s behaviour after landing.

A statement from United Airlines said: “This morning United flight 2478 was taxiing toward the gate at Chicago O’Hare when a passenger opened an aircraft door and exited the plane.

“Our ground crew stopped the individual outside of the aircraft, and the person is now with law enforcement.

“The plane then arrived at the gate and all passengers deplaned safely. The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”

Passengers in an exit row are given instructions on how to open the emergency removable panel over the wing in the event of an evacuation - with instructions usually given on a safety card in the seatback pocket.

To sit in these rows - which often have extra legroom - you must be aged over 15, able-bodied, be willing to perform emergency manoeuvres if needed, and must listen to an extra safety briefing from flight attendants.

The Independent has approached United Airlines for further comment.