Antonio Murdock, 31, pictured arriving for his arraignment Tuesday
A Delta airplane passenger who opened a cabin door and escaped down the emergency slide with a friend and his service dog because he was allegedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has been pictured arriving for his arraignment in New York.
Antonio Murdock, 31, was led into Queens County court in handcuffs Tuesday morning where he will be arraigned on multiple charges over Monday’s incident.
Murdock and his companion Brianna Greco, 23, both from Florida, were arrested after he opened a cabin door and activated the slide on Delta Flight 462 from La Guardia Airport in New York to Atlanta Monday morning.
The couple changed seats several times before the flight began taxiing out to a runway and Murdock stood up and said he had PTSD, another passenger said.
He ignored the flight attendant’s instruction to stay seated and the plane came to a grinding halt when he forced open the door and the pair went down the emergency slide with their service dog Rain.
A source told NY Daily News Murdock told cops his PTSD stems from a jail stint on robbery charges and was triggered by the confined space in the airplane cabin.
Murdock, the Delta airplane passenger who escaped down a slide with his service dog before it took off because he was allegedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, arrived for his arraignment in New York Tuesday
Antonio Murdock, 31, was led in handcuffs by Port Authority police officers into Queens County court Tuesday where he will be arraigned on multiple charges over Monday’s incident
Murdock and his companion Brianna Greco, 23, both from Florida, were arrested after he opened a cabin door and activated the slide on Delta Flight 462 from La Guardia Airport in New York to Atlanta Monday morning
The Port Authority Police Department said Murdock was arrested on charges of criminal mischief in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree and criminal trespass in the third degree.
Greco faces charges of criminal trespass in the third degree.
Speaking about the couple, witness Brian Plummer told the New York Times: ‘They seemed really nice.’
Plummer said he was sitting toward the back of the plane which wasn’t completely full when he noticed them and their large service dog.
Plummer said he saw them change seats several times and that he heard Murdock say he would ‘freak out’ if he was forced to sit down at the start of the flight because of his PTSD.
‘If I sit down, I’ll freak out,’ Murdock said, according to Plummer.
The attendant told Murdock to sit down twice before he stood up and walked towards the front of the plane as it started to taxi out to a runway.
Plummer told the Times he suddenly felt the plane shudder to a halt – which he later learned was because Murdock had forced open the cabin door.
Murdock then allegedly leaped down the slide, followed by Greco and Rain.
Two passengers escaped a Delta airplane down a slide with their dog before it took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York on Monday after one said he was suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. Pictured: A Delta plane sits on the tarmac at the airport
The couple have been put into custody. Remaining passengers were ‘deplaned normally’ at LaGuardia (pictured) and taken on alternate flights
Flight 462 was scheduled to depart shortly before 10am but was returned to the gate.
Delta said there were 106 passengers on the plane at the time and the remaining passengers were ‘deplaned normally and were accommodated on alternate flights’.
Maintenance technicians checked over the aircraft and it finally left LaGuardia at 7.17pm, more than nine hours late.
Delta spokesperson Adrian Gee told DailyMail.com the airline ‘can’t speak to what may have transpired on the aircraft, but we can say this was not a security threat or an on-board emergency.’
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesperson Lenis Valens said: ‘This doesn’t happen every day at the airport.’
Valens said Tuesday morning that Greco had been released while Murdock remained in custody awaiting arraignment.
Rain was taken to Brooklyn Animal shelter and a receipt was given to Greco to pick up the dog.
Incidents of people opening the cabin doors are rare but not unheard of.
Back in 2010 at Kennedy International Airport, a JetBlue flight attendant activated an emergency slide and slid down it before throwing his tie on the ground and storming away after an apparent altercation with a passenger.