HOUSTON – A flight that left Houston had to make an emergency stop in Little Rock, Arkansas after a woman tried to open the plane door at 37,000 feet and bit a passenger, according to media reports.
The incident happened Saturday as the Southwest Airlines flight was headed to Columbus, Ohio.
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Court documents obtained by ABC 13 and KPRC, KSAT’s sister station in Houston, state that the woman, 34-year-old Elom Agbegninou, went to the back of the plane mid-flight and “stared” at the exit door.
When a flight attendant told the woman she had to either use the bathroom or return to her seat, the woman asked to look out the window. The flight attendant did not allow her to do so and Agbegninou forced her way to the door, KPRC reported.
The woman then began to pull the handle on the exit door in an attempt to open it.
A passenger who heard the commotion went to the back of the plane to help detain the woman.
Agbegninou then bit the passenger in the thigh, and the passenger “worked their fingers up to (her) jawline in an attempt to have (her) release the bite, which she eventually did,” the documents state.
They were able to control the woman after she began hitting her head on the floor.
Agbegninou later told authorities that “Jesus told her to fly to Ohio and Jesus told her to open the plane door,” KPRC reported. The woman told authorities she was “very anxious,” couldn’t breathe and “normally would not have done those things.”
She is facing charges of assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction and interference with flight crew members and attendants, ABC13 reported.
She was headed to Maryland to stay with a friend, who was a pastor, and had left her home without luggage and without telling her husband.
The injured passenger was taken to the hospital and given antibiotics and a hepatitis shot, KPRC reported.