Unbelievable: Passenger Opens Emergency Exit Door and Walks Off Moving Plane at Chicago’s O’Hare

Yesterday, I wrote a post about how Toronto’s Pearson International Airport is doing a “customs hold” and one of my friends was held on a parked plane at the gate for over an hour. Apparently, one impatient dude feels the same.

This morning, a passenger on United Airlines flight 2478 from San Diego to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport didn’t want to wait for the plane to taxi to the gate so he pulled the plane’s emergency exit and walked onto the wing of the moving 737 and slid down to the tarmac. He was arrested shortly afterwards.

It happened around 4:30 a.m. after the four-hour red eye flight. Here’s United’s statement per WGN: “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.”

According to Flight Aware (see above), the plane arrived 20 minutes late to the gate so it wasn’t like it was severely delayed.

@fly2ohare guy jumps out of my plane before we get to the gate. @united UA2478 pic.twitter.com/xgxRszkBfH

— MaryEllen Eagelston (@MEEagelston) May 5, 2022

Twitter user @MEEagelston tweeted a photo of the plane door open with the comment: “@fly2ohare guy jumps out of my plane before we get to the gate. @united UA2478.

People are acting crazy lately but if you’re worried about this happening on your flight, don’t. Physics don’t allow the emergency door to be opened in the air. And although this was bad, it was nothing like what happened yesterday at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where a man on a motorcycle flew past airport security wielding a handgun and tried to hijack a plane. He was caught and according to Yahoo! he faces life in prison or the death penalty. The impatient man in Chicago will be slapped with a fine, banned by United for life but will be back in the skies next week.