A passenger on a Ukraine International Airlines flight shocked her fellow passengers as well as the crew when she climbed out onto the plane’s wings to “cool off” after complaining she was “too hot” inside the aircraft. The flight had just returned to Kiev from the Turkish resort of Antalya when the unnamed woman, said to be a mom of two, opened the emergency exit on the Boeing 737-86N and stepped out to “get some air.”
- Video of the incident was shared online. It quickly went viral as no one had ever seen anything quite like it. Not only is it forbidden to open emergency exits on a plane at any time, but to do so as everyone was getting off and strolling out onto the wing like it was no big deal took some serious gall.
- She reportedly left her kids inside the aircraft. “The aircraft landed and almost all the passengers got off,” a fellow passenger recalled to reporters. “She walked almost all the way from the tail to the emergency exit row, opened the door and went out. By that time her two children were outside the plane and standing right next to me. They were surprised, saying, ‘that’s our mum!'”
- Once the pilot alerted to what was happening, the authorities were called. An ambulance, the local police, as well as the border guards were all called to the scene in the midst of the confusion, but the woman told authorities that she was just too hot and had to get out. No big deal, right? Wrong. Incidentally, drug and alcohol tests proved she wasn’t under the influence, so she was totally sober when she made the decision.
- Ukraine International Airlines has since blacklisted the woman. They added in a statement: “A passenger of flight PS6212 Antalya-Kyiv illegally opened the emergency exit of the plane after it stopped near gate 11 of terminal D and went on to its wing. The passenger was flying on a charter vacation with her husband and children. The chief pilot immediately summoned the aviation security, border service, police, and medical center of Boryspil Airport. The passenger was blacklisted for gross violation of aviation safety rules and behavior on board.”
