Incident on flight ends in an arrest

A woman on a plane leaving Houston’s Hobby Airport tried to open an exit door in midflight and bit a passenger who tried to stop her, forcing an emergency landing, a federal criminal complaint filed Monday states.

Southwest Airlines Flight 192 took off from Hobby and was heading to Columbus, Ohio, before making the emergency stop in Little Rock, Ark., on Saturday afternoon.

A flight attendant reported to authorities that passenger Elom Agbegninou, 34, asked multiple crew members if she could look out the window near the flight attendant jumpseat, with each attendant telling her no. After that, Agbegninou forced her way around a flight attendant and started to pull the handle of the exit door while the plane was 37,000 feet in the air, according to the flight attendant’s statement in the criminal complaint.

Another flight attendant told authorities they were shoved by Agbegninou while she was trying to get to the exit door, according to the complaint, filed by the FBI.

Agbegninou was wrestled to the ground by people on the flight and restrained.

A passenger on the plane had heard another passenger say, “She’s trying to open the door,” prompting them to head to the back of the plane along with others. This passenger told authorities they helped take Agbegninou down, pinning her to the floor, according to the complaint

Agbegninou told the passenger who pinned her that “Jesus told her to fly to Ohio, and Jesus told her to open the plane door,” according to the complaint.

When Agbegninou was pinned down by the passenger,

she bit their leg, the complaint stated. Someone told the passenger to choke Agbegninou. The passenger put their hands around Agbegninou’s throat but did not squeeze, according to witness statements in the complaint.

Agbegninou eventually stopped biting the passenger’s leg and then began hitting her head against the floor, the complaint stated.

Agbegninou was restrained in the rear of the plane in cuffs.

After landing, the passenger who was bitten was taken to the hospital and received antibiotics and hepatitis shots, according to the complaint. The passenger was reported to have post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. The complaint said they called the veterans crisis hotline after the incident.

Upon the emergency landing at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock around 3:35 p.m., officers took Agbegninou into custody.

Agbegninou told authorities she was heading to Maryland to stay with a friend who was a pastor and that she left her Texas home that day without telling her husband. She bought her flight ticket on the day of the trip and traveled alone and with no luggage. Agbegninou told authorities she could not remember the last time she was on a plane before Saturday and that she could not breathe on the flight. She said she remembered trying to open the door and biting the passenger, the complaint stated.

In the complaint, Agbegninou is accused of assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction and interference with flight crew members and attendants.

The rest of the flight’s passengers eventually made it to Ohio after the delay.