On Monday, authorities revealed that a flight, headed from Chicago to Sacramento, was diverted to Eppley Airfield in Omaha Nebraska after a man tried to open a cabin door mid-flight.

The Southwest Airlines flight had been in the air for nearly an hour when 23-year-old Joshua Carl Suggs made the attempt to open the door. Luckily, the flight attendants and passengers were able to subdue him before the door was opened.

“Some gentleman just decided that he wanted us to visit the Lord today, and decided to open up the back hatch of Southwest Airlines flight while we were already up in the air,” a passenger on the flight Monique Lawler told KABC-TV.

Suggs had been asked by flight attendants to return to his seat twice before he pushed his way to the door. He claimed he wanted to look out the window, and refused to sit when the “fasten your seatbelt” signs appeared. “He was going to do bad things to the plane so it was pretty scary,” Scott Porter, another passenger, said.

After being subdued, a law enforcement officer restrained Suggs and sat him in a window seat next to him until the flight landed safely. Suggs was removed from the plane and taken into custody by the Omaha Airport Authority Police Department. Suggs is being charged with a federal crime of interfering with flight crew members. Passengers described Suggs as having dilated pupils and speaking incoherently. Although the flight was two hours late, it did make it to Sacramento safely, after the scary incident.

It is not currently known if substance abuse contributed to his behavior. Suggs is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Omaha on Wednesday.

Image via Wikimedia Commons