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‘Mentally Ill Passenger' Tries to Open Plane Doors Mid-NYC Flight, Air Traffic Audio Says

If you are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting 'Home' to 741741

A passenger aboard a Delta flight tried to open the front door of the plane mid-flight, prompting the pilot to declare an emergency, according to live air traffic control transmission ATC.net. The plane landed safely at LaGuardia Airport.

On an audio recording the pilot told tower control that the emotionally disturbed passenger tried to open the "forward service door" on the right side of the Delta 5935 flight from Raleigh to LaGuardia. It landed in New York City around 1:40 p.m.

"We’re aware of the social media report related to the flight and are looking into it, but what I can tell you now is that the flight landed uneventfully and proceeded to its gate," a Republic Airways spokesperson said.

At least one woman on social media tweeted the woman was "screaming her head off that she needed to open the door and die." That woman tweeted the upset traveler's father pulled her away from the door. 

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"I wasn’t scared as I knew the door could not be opened but her shrieks were terrifying," Stacy Herbert tweeted. "And she was sitting behind us so when she was pulled back to her seat it was awful to see her suicidal distress."

Passengers say that she woman was ultimately subdued by a flight attendant and her father. 

After the plane landed safely, the woman was subsequently taken to an area hospital for observation.

Herbert tweeted photos of what appeared to be a dozen law enforcement vehicles and ambulances surrounding the plane once it landed safely. 

If you are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting 'Home' to 741741.

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