MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A passenger was arrested at an Australian airport Thursday after exiting an emergency exit from a stopped aircraft, walking along the wing, exiting the jet engine and onto the runway, authorities said.
According to authorities, Jetstar flight JQ507 had arrived at Melbourne Airport from Sydney and was parked at the terminal gate when a man disembarked from the plane via the right-hand exit.
A Jetstar statement said that when the exit is opened, the slides automatically deploy from behind the wings of the fuselage to the ground, but the man instead walked along the wing and exited one of the Airbus A320’s two engines, the people said.
Passenger Audrey Varghese said the man began behaving “erratically” just before opening the hatch, causing passengers to scream and cry.
“The man was behaving quite strangely,” Mr Varghese told Melbourne radio 3AW.
“As soon as the plane started to stop, he immediately got up and basically charged towards the row of emergency exits, shoving people out of the way in the process and causing a bit of a commotion and destroying the emergency exit doors,” Varghese said.
Another passenger, who gave her name as Madison, told Nine News TV that the man had been smoking an e-cigarette during the 90-minute morning flight, which was not permitted, and that he had unsuccessfully asked the flight attendant to serve him alcohol.
Australian Federal Police received a tip from Jetstar staff and arrested the man for “suspected aggressive behaviour and breaches of aircraft safety regulations”, a police statement said.
He was examined by paramedics and taken to hospital where he remains admitted for further examination, a police statement said.
Police are continuing to investigate and charges are likely to be laid at a later date.
Melbourne Airport said the man was detained by flight crew and ground staff before being arrested by police.
Images on social media showed at least three ground staff restraining the man on the tarmac.
“Melbourne Airport is proud of the excellent response of our ground staff, which ensured there was no immediate danger to other passengers or airport staff,” the airport said in a statement.
An hour after the plane landed, Varghese said passengers were told by the airport’s baggage claim that the slide had deployed, delaying the unloading of their bags. Nine News reported that the bags were released a few hours later.
