Southwest Plane Diverted After Woman Tries Opening Emergency Exit On Houston-Bound Flight

Southwest Airlines flight 4519 flying from Los Angeles to Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, was forced to divert course and land at Corpus Christi International Airport, Nueces County, Texas, on Sunday, after a disruptive woman passenger tried to open the emergency exit on the aircraft.

The flight left Los Angeles around 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) and was supposed to land at Houston around 1.30 p.m. CDT (2:30 p.m. EDT). Instead, it was diverted to Corpus Christi International Airport shortly after the flight took off due to the unruly behavior of a female passenger.

According to Houston Chronicle, the Southwest said about the incident: “Following an uneventful landing, local authorities met the aircraft at a gate and removed the disruptive passenger. The safe operation of every flight is our highest priority and we expect the aircraft to depart shortly to complete the journey to Houston.”

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Several eye witnesses who were onboard the flight described the strange behavior of the passenger in question to local news outlets.

"I knew something wasn't right," one anonymous passenger told KHOU 11 News. "She wrote 'Help me' and her name on (beverage napkins), it was weird, something like you see on TV, you never expect to think you'd be on that same flight."

Henrietta Mokwuah, another passenger, told ABC 13 News that the woman appeared mentally unstable as she paced back and forth inside the flight and refused to sit down. She added that the woman then proceeded to break a piece of the emergency door.

"Oh yeah, she tore off a piece of it. There was the frame that was on the door. She ended up breaking it off," said Mokwuah. "We've been visiting Corpus Christi over that for four to five hours."

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According to passenger Terrance Franklin, the woman had been behaving suspiciously before she got on the flight. He had spotted her in the terminal at Los Angeles International Airport where she was already showing signs of mental instability.

"Prior to the flight, she had a couple of outbursts saying she was being treated wrong. Some things with the government -- personal and political," said Franklin. "Once we got in the air, that's when it all started again. She was walking back and forth. I knew something wasn't right.”

Kristy Gillentine, a former journalist, who was flying on the flight at the time, took to Twitter to state that the “erratic” passenger should never have been allowed on the flight.

Pamela Minchew, an off-duty police officer from Cleveland Independent School District, along with another man helped detain the woman till the plane was firmly on the ground at the Corpus Christi International Airport.

"She [Minchew] was definitely a hero for us," said Itza Sanchez, a passenger.

The passenger was taken into custody by the FBI and is being questioned. She has not been formally charged with a crime and the authorities have been unable to identify her.

The flight left for Hobby Airport after the delay and reached Houston six hours after the scheduled time.