A teen boy who jumped out of an airplane’s emergency exit at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday afternoon was taken to a hospital to be evaluated.
The incident happened around 2:30 p.m. as the plane waited to taxi to its arrival gate. The teen was traveling by himself on the Copa Airlines flight from Panama City, Panama, and passengers said he was anxious and distressed throughout the seven-hour flight, Mercury News reported. He reportedly jumped onto the wing of the plane and slid down onto the tarmac before anyone noticed he had opened the emergency door.
The teen was not injured in the incident, but it is illegal to open an emergency door without instructions from airplane personnel, so he was arrested. He was handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but was identified as a U.S. citizen, ABC News reported.
The incident caused an uproar on the plane as people shouted to tell flight attendants what the teen had done. “They were yelling, ‘Tell the flight attendants. Relay the message back. The door’s open. Someone jumped off,’” passenger Matt Crowder of Atherton said, Mercury News reported. “It was pretty crazy.”
A flight attendant stood where the door had been to block the exit until the plane got to the gate about an hour later, ABC News reported. The incident did not affect any other flights.
Twitter users speculated about why the teen would jump from the plane.