A man was taken into custody after walking out of an emergency exit door and onto the wing of an Aeromexico airplane Thursday.
Passengers of the flight are defending the man, claiming the man’s actions “saved” them from dangerous conditions.
The Associated Press reported that the airport said in a statement that “a passenger on a flight to Guatemala opened an emergency door on a plane while it was stationary at a remote position, stood on a wing, and then re-entered the cabin, without affecting the aircraft or anyone else.”
A social media post on X showed that the passengers of the flight wrote a letter that detailed they “were kept on the tarmac for hours without proper ventilation or water during a flight delay.”
The plane bound for Guatemala was “parked and waiting for takeoff at the Mexico City International Airport on Thursday,” when a passenger who no longer wanted to wait left the plane and then returned to the cabin “without affecting the aircraft or anyone else,” according to the New York Post.
Following the deplaning of the passengers on the flight, the man reportedly turned himself in to the police.
In the letter, which was translated by USA Today, the passengers further wrote, “The delay and lack of air created conditions that endangered the health of the passengers. He saved our lives.”
The 77 passengers who signed the statement reportedly attributed the outburst as a way “to protect everyone, with the support of everyone.”
Business Insider reported that an incident report obtained by AP read, “The passengers were unhappy and one of them opened the emergency door and stepped out on the wing.”
The report continued that the maintenance alert that went off during the delay required the plane’s captain to return to the gate, which “required the plane to be changed.”
