Passenger was beaten and tied up after trying to open the door in mid-air on a Copa Airlines flight

An unruly airline passenger who tried to open the emergency door mid-flight was beaten and restrained by fellow passengers on a Copa Airlines flight. According to the New York Post, The incident occurred on Tuesday on a flight from Brazil to Panama. The flight went as planned until, 30 minutes before landing, a man stormed into the back of the plane with a plastic knife from his food tray and attempted to take a flight attendant hostage, with the goal of opening the plane door.

A video of the incident posted on the microblogging site Another clip shows officers boarding the plane and taking the man away in handcuffs with a bloody face.

VIDEO – Passageiro tenta abrir porta de avião em voo Brasília–Panamá; If you have booked a flight a week before arrival in the city of Panama (5). Passageiro foi detido pelas autoridades. pic.twitter.com/gDTyB5fwg3

— Nelson Carlos dos Santos Belchior (@NelsonCarlosd15) November 5, 2024

According to the post30 minutes before landing, photojournalist Cristiano Carvalho witnessed the man’s attempt to open the door. “One flight attendant started screaming and another tried to hold him back but couldn’t because he was too strong,” he said.

“He walked past the rear emergency door after the warning,” Mr Carvalho recalled, adding: “Then he started moving forward and trying to open it.”

At that moment, passengers jumped to the rescue and fought the man to prevent him from opening the plane’s emergency door, the 51-year-old said. He said that despite initial difficulties, fellow passengers eventually managed to restrain the airhead after beating him bloody due to the man’s strength.

“They beat him so many times that he almost lost consciousness,” Mr. Carvalho described.

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In a statement, Copa Airlines claimed that after landing in Panama, “the national security team entered the aircraft, removed the passenger and brought him to the judicial authorities.”

The airlines praised both crew members and passengers for coming together to stop the unruly passenger from opening the plane door. “The crew acted quickly and, with the assistance of some passengers, applied the necessary safety protocols to keep the situation under control until landing in Panama. “Thanks to the professionalism of the crew, the safety of the flight and passengers could be ensured,” the airline spokesman said.

Meanwhile, this incident comes days after a man in the United States violently attacked a deaf and non-verbal passenger while he was sleeping on a United Airlines flight until the cabin was splattered with blood. Authorities identified the suspect as 44-year-old Everett Chal Nelson. He was charged with assault by beating, punching and wounding in the US Aircraft Special Area. If convicted, he faces up to a year in prison.