Southwest Airlines passenger opens emergency exit door, climbs onto wing in New Orleans

A Southwest Airlines passenger opened a plane’s emergency exit door, got onto the wing and was caught on the ground as the plane was readying to pull back from the gate at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Sunday night.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed a man was caught on the tarmac and taken to a local hospital for evaluation after he “opened an emergency exit and got onto the wing while the plane was still at the skyway and had not pushed back,” Sergeant Brandon Veal said in an email statement.

Witnesses told CBS-affiliate 4WWL that once on the ground, the man tried to drive away in a service vehicle before airport authorities stopped him.

The sheriff’s office did not release the man’s name and said there are no criminal charges at this time. The investigation has been referred to federal authorities, which take jurisdiction over incidents aboard commercial aircraft.

The incident happened on Southwest Airlines flight 3172 from New Orleans to Atlanta, which was scheduled to take off at 7:25 p.m. Sunday. The plane’s departure was delayed by nearly three hours and the flight landed in Atlanta at 12:12 a.m., long after the scheduled 9:50 p.m. landing, according to Flightradar24.com.

It was a strange ending to the busiest travel day of the year, where TSA security agents screened more than 2.9 million passengers as travelers were finishing off a busy weekend and returning home after the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We commend our flight and ground crews for their swift action and apologize to our customers for their inconvenience,” Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Perry said.