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A stir-crazy Scottish passenger trapped on a JFK Airport tarmac for 2-1/2 hours tried to make a break for it by yanking open the emergency exit door, prosecutors said.
Robert McDonald, 60, of Glasgow, apparently had enough of the wait inside Delta's Flight 149 to Las Vegas on Sunday night when he went for the escape hatch, prosecutors said. He had just completed the transatlantic leg of his journey and had to change planes at JFK, prosecutors said.
The flight crew grabbed him before he could swing the door fully open and deploy the inflatable chute, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
McDonald's flight left the gate a little after 5p.m., but was stuck on the taxiway until 7:45 p.m. because of bad weather, prosecutors said.
He was arrested by Port Authority police officers and was expected to be arraigned at Queens Criminal Court last night on charges of reckless endangerment and criminal tampering. He faces up to a year behind bars if convicted.
Robert McDonald, 60, of Glasgow, apparently had enough of the wait inside Delta's Flight 149 to Las Vegas on Sunday night when he went for the escape hatch, prosecutors said. He had just completed the transatlantic leg of his journey and had to change planes at JFK, prosecutors said.
The flight crew grabbed him before he could swing the door fully open and deploy the inflatable chute, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
McDonald's flight left the gate a little after 5p.m., but was stuck on the taxiway until 7:45 p.m. because of bad weather, prosecutors said.
He was arrested by Port Authority police officers and was expected to be arraigned at Queens Criminal Court last night on charges of reckless endangerment and criminal tampering. He faces up to a year behind bars if convicted.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/31...ter_trying.html
One New Yorker agreed with the Glaswegian's actions:
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The man should sue back for unlawful detention and try to get 1 million dollars back from the airline for this stupidity. Nobody deserves to be forced to sit in an airline for that period of time. He was the only smart one to try to escape the situation. This is one of the reasons people won't fly and the airline industry is such a financial disaster.
GG.