A 33-year-old man was taken into custody after allegedly trying to open an exterior aircraft door at 30,000ft during a Lufthansa flight from Bogotá to Frankfurt. The flight descended into chaos when the passenger stood up from his seat and began shaking the plane door.
Crew and passengers intervene
The crew asked the man to stop shaking the door, but he ignored their instructions, according to German newspaper Bild. The situation on board the Boeing 787 escalated to the point that cabin crew had to physically pull the man away. Two passengers joined in efforts to subdue him, and they eventually managed to get him away from the door.
The flight was able to continue as scheduled, according to Lufthansa. At cruising altitude, the cabin door cannot be opened due to the high pressure.
Police response and legal action
Police met the plane when it landed in Frankfurt, and the man was taken into custody. A police spokesperson said: "Due to his condition, the man was taken to a nearby psychiatric hospital." Criminal proceedings have been started against the man on suspicion of endangering air traffic.
In a separate incident, a safari plane carrying 30 people was forced to make an emergency landing after striking and killing a zebra during take-off in Tanzania. The Sindbard Air aircraft was carrying 26 passengers and four crew from Seronera to Zanzibar when it hit the animal on the runway in the Serengeti National Park at around 11.30am local time on Sunday, according to Aviation Herald.
The aircraft was a 1990-built Embraer EMB-120ER Brasilia, registered 5H-HLL, according to Aviation Safety Network records. The crew diverted towards Kilimanjaro International Airport after the collision but were unable to lower the aircraft's main landing gear. The Embraer EMB-120 was eventually forced to land with its main gear up on runway 09 at Kilimanjaro. Dramatic footage showed smoke coming from the aircraft as its underside scraped along the runway during the landing.
