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Man tries to open plane door on runway moments before take-off
Passenger reportedly wanted to let friends on to flight
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A flight was forced to abort take-off after a passenger reportedly tried to open the aircraft door to let his friends onboard while it was taxiing on the runway.
The IndiGo flight from Delhi, India to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was due to depart at 8.10pm on 18 February, but was delayed by three hours by the incident.
A group of 110 passengers was travelling from Srinagar to Jeddah via Delhi, an airport official told The Times of India. But two of them reportedly lost their boarding cards, and were not allowed on the connecting IndiGo flight from Delhi.
“While the aircraft was taxiing, the group leader demanded that the two passengers be accepted on board,” said the official. “The IndiGo crew tried to pacify this person and asked him to take his seat as the aircraft was taxiing.
“But two onboard reportedly got very agitated and tried to open the aircraft door to stop it.
“When they resorted to this, the captain decided to return to the terminal where two male and three women passengers were offloaded with their three checked-in bags.”
The flight eventually landed in Jeddah at 2.23am, according to FlightRadar24, two hours and 25 minutes late.
An IndiGo spokesperson said: “We confirm the incident on 6E1741 operating from Delhi to Jeddah on February 18, 2020.
“Some passengers displayed unruly behaviour and were offloaded to continue flight operations. A report has been filed with the relevant authorities as per protocol.”
It’s not the first time a passenger has tried to open a plane door.
A 26-year-old woman was recently jailed for two years after trying to open the door of a passenger plane in mid-air.
Chloe Haines was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court of endangering the safety of an aircraft and assaulting a member of cabin crew.
The air-rage incident occurred on board a Jet2 flight last June, which was flying to Dalaman in Turkey.
The aircraft was forced to return to the UK when Haines tried to open the door, forcing the RAF to scramble two Eurofighter Typhoon jets to intercept it.
Jet2 claimed that the incident cost them £86,000.
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