- And no, it wasn’t because of an emergency situation, at least, not an emergency to anyone else.
It was Monday morning when two Delta passengers exited the Atlanta bound plane via the slide while the plane was taxiing down a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport. A large service dog deplaned with them as well.
Details about the dog have not surfaced yet but due to the pair’s charges, apparently the dog that accompanied the couple has been taken to a Brooklyn animal shelter.
Antonio Murdock, 31, and Brianna Greco, 23, both from Florida, are facing some pretty serious charges after their stunt. They each face third-degree criminal trespassing. Murdock was also charged with second-degree criminal mischief and second-degree reckless endangerment.
A Manhattan man flying home to his family in Panama City Beach said that he switched seats with the couple and their dog at the gate. Casey Johnson said that they were both pleasant throughout the interaction and that nothing out of the ordinary occurred to him regarding the couple or the situation.
He even called Murdock, “soft-spoken.” Johnson said that he asked him to switch rows so that they could have the last aisle of the plane and be better able to accommodate their dog.
The plane was mostly full besides the middle seats which are still being blocked off due to Delta’s COVID-19 restrictions. However, just minutes after switching seats with Johnson, the couple and the dog moved again, and this time it was several rows forward.
“I do actually remember thinking, ‘Well, you guys just asked me to swap rows with you because you wanted to be in the back, and now all of a sudden you decided you want to be forward,’ ” he recalled.
After the plane left the gate, Johnson was wearing headphones when he remembered hearing a commotion. “And the next thing I know, I look up while we’re moving, and I just see … I see lots of people standing up, and I see like four people running towards the front of the plane. And at this point those must have been passengers that were running to try to, like, stop the person,”
Johnson said that he didn’t see the pair or the dog actually leave the plane, but that he did see that the emergency exit near the front of the plane was opened. One of the pilots did address the passengers.
They let everyone on board know that the slide had been deployed and the door was open, but not why. Due to the situation, the plane sat on tarmac for over an hour before returning to the gate.
People deplaned as usual after the aircraft returned to the gate and passengers were booked on other flights. “Maintenance technicians have evaluated the aircraft, and (it) is scheduled to return to service this evening,” Morgan Durrant, Delta spokesman, said.
Johnson took an afternoon flight with others from the original flight and remarked saying, “And then of course it was just the talk of the airport, you know, for the next few hours, and even getting to Atlanta finally they’re like, ‘Oh, you were on that flight?'”