Woman accused of trying to open door during plane flight gets malicious mischief charge

SEATTLE – A Florida woman accused of trying to open a United Airlines jet exit door as the flight descended into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was charged Monday with first-degree malicious mischief.

Jeanne Ann Dempsey, 52, of Dania Beach, Fla., was arrested last Wednesday by Port of Seattle police after the plane landed.

King County Superior Court documents allege that Dempsey left her seat during final descent, with the plane at 3,800 feet, and tried to open an emergency exit door at the rear of the plane, a Boeing 737 on a flight from Denver. She wasn’t able to open it, but it triggered a warning light in the cockpit.

The attendants led her back to her seat and secured the door. Officers who arrested her said she was stumbling, confused and smelled of intoxicants, and was “mumbling something about being depressed and wanting to die,” court papers said.

Dempsey was scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 18 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.