Passengers in shock as a man opens the emergency exit and 'jumps out' of an aircraft

Saturday, August 24, 2024 - Chaotic scenes played out onboard a plane when a passenger chose to disembark his fight in an unusual way.

The man pulled open the emergency exit door just as Jetstar flight JQ507 from Sydney touched down at Melbourne Airport, Australia at around 10am on Thursday, August 22.

He then jumped out of the plane, walked onto the aircraft’s wing and slid down the evacuation slide, before ground staff quickly restrained him.

Before his departure, flight attendants told the man to sit down as he paced around not listening to the crew, reports Sky News.

Fellow passengers screamed at the man, believed to be in his 30s, to “please sit down”, as the drama unfurled.

The man was arrested and passengers were allowed to exit the plane.

A passenger named Adam recalled that the man stood up from his seat, ignoring flight staff’s instructions to stay seated, and appeared to be suffering a mental health episode.

He told Sky News: “Effectively as we were taxiing to the gate, the gentleman sitting not too far from me stood up and ignored instructions to sit down.

“He was looking a little bit disturbed, I guessed he was having some sort of psychotic episode.

“When we actually pulled up to the gate he reached over to the emergency exit, pulled it. Everyone at that point was screaming at him telling him to stop and trying to physically restrain him.”

The man managed to dodge the several passengers trying to restrain him and “jump through” the exit door.

Adam added that everyone was screaming and that “not many people knew what was happening”.

“It was quite a tense atmosphere, the lady in the emergency exit row was pretty traumatised,” he said.

A Jetstar spokesperson confirmed that a passenger “opened the emergency exit door after arrival into Melbourne, which automatically deployed the slide”.

They added: “The plane was parked at the gate at a time. The passenger has been arrested by the Australian Federal Police.”