Woman forces emergency landing after biting passenger and claiming Jesus told her to open plane door mid-flight
Passenger travelled alone and without luggage, having not told her family she was leaving
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A woman forced an emergency landing after biting a fellow passenger and claiming that Jesus told her to open the plane door mid-flight.
The Southwest Airlines passenger was arrested after the assault and the attempt to force open the door at 37,000 feet (11,2km).
Flight 192 from Houston to Ohio on 26 November was landed at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The woman has been identified as Elom Agbegninou, 34, court documents show. Ms Agbegninou allegedly had to be restrained after forcing her way to the plane’s rear door.
In the process of attempting to open the emergency door mid-flight, Ms Agbegninou bit the inner thigh of another traveller, according to the legal filing in the District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, KPRC reported.
The flight crew saw Ms Agbegninou hanging around at the back of the plane staring at the door, court documents released on Monday 28 November state.
It was at this point that she was asked to “use the bathroom or sit down”.
After requesting to look out the back door window, Ms Agbegninou was told she couldn’t. Instead of returning to her seat, Ms Agbegninou then moved past the flight attendant and tried to open the door.
After other passengers noticed the disturbance, someone was heard saying, “she’s trying to open the door”. A fellow traveller intervened in a bid to restrain Ms Agbegninou and she responded by allegedly biting them continuously on the inner thigh.
Court documents state that she kept biting down until the passenger “worked their fingers up to (her) jawline in an attempt to have (her) release the bite, which she eventually did”.
The victim was eventually able to wrestle the woman to the ground, and they later received antibiotic treatment and a hepatitis injection. While court documents didn’t name the passenger, the filing did state that has experienced anxiety and PTSD and called a veterans’ crisis hotline following the ordeal, KPRC reported.
The plane made its emergency landing at Little Rock, where Agbegninou was met on the runway by police.
Ms Agbegninou then began hitting her head on the plane floor and said afterwards that “Jesus told her to fly to Ohio and Jesus told her to open the door”.
The woman is also said to have been travelling alone, without luggage, and hadn’t told her husband she would be taking the flight.
She told authorities that she was heading to Maryland to stay with a family friend working as a pastor. She hadn’t flown in a long time and she was unable to recall the last time she took a flight.
The legal documents state that she claims to have struggled to breathe and decided to leave her seat.
She said she “became very anxious and normally would not have done those things,” legal documents state.
Ms Agbegninou is now facing charges of assault and interference with flight crew members.