A woman from the US tried to open the door of an aircraft at 37,000 feet when the plane was on its way to Columbus from Houston on Saturday.
The 34-year-old woman, identified as Elom Agbegninou, later claimed that “Jesus told her to open the plane door,” according to court documents.
She forced the pilot to make an emergency landing in Little Rock, Arkansas after she tried to pull the exit lever, which led to a scuffle between the woman and the crew.
A passenger also jumped in to help the crew and received injuries to their thigh. According to documents released by an Arkansas District Court, Agbegninou left her seat, walked towards the emergency exit, and started staring at it.
A flight attendant then asked her to either use the bathroom or return to her seat. The woman then asked the attendant if she could look out the window and ran towards the gate to pull its handle after the crew rejected her request.
The crew was joined by another passenger as they tried to control Agbegninou. The passenger was helping detain the woman when she bit the person on the thigh.
The documents stated that she continued biting the victim until they “worked their fingers up to (her) jawline in an attempt to have (her) release the bite, which she eventually did.”
She then started hitting her head on the floor of the plane and later told officials that “Jesus told her to fly to Ohio and Jesus told her to open the plane door.”
The victim, whose identity has not been revealed, was taken to a local hospital after the plane made an emergency landing.
The woman told authorities she was on her way to Maryland to stay with a family friend. She did not inform her husband and was travelling alone. She also did not have any luggage with her.
Agbegninou said that she could not breathe on the plane and decided to get up from her seat. She also said that she remembered trying to open the door and biting the person.
She claimed that she had anxiety and “became very anxious and normally would not have done those things.” According to a report in The Mirror, the woman faces charges of assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction and interference with flight crew members and attendants.
