NewsUS NewsUnited AirlinesA passenger on board a United Airlines flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Guatemala is alleged to have tried to open a door in mid-air following an argument17:21, 22 May 2026A United Airlines flight was forced to divert following a mid-air emergency where a passenger allegedly tried to open a door.‌There were 145 passengers and six crew members on board the plane heading from Newark Liberty International Airport to Guatemala City when the pilot took the decision to divert due to an unruly passenger.‌Police met Flight 1551 when the Boeing 737-8 MAX landed safely at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Thursday afternoon.‌A passenger tried to open a plane door while it was travelling in the air, an air traffic control recording suggested. They are then said to have attacked another person who tried to intervene.READ MORE: 'I'm a doctor and this is how worried you should be about the spread of Ebola'READ MORE: New UFO files reveal bombshell reports of 'unexplained green orbs' and 'flying discs'Crew members and passengers are understood to have restrained the person until the plane landed.‌A spokesperson for United Airlines told the Mirror the flight was cancelled after the incident and passengers were put on a replacement on Friday morning. No more details have been released.The statement from the airline read: "United flight 1551 landed safely at Washington Dulles and was met by law enforcement to address an unruly passenger. The flight was cancelled, with a replacement flight added for Friday morning, and customers were provided overnight accommodations."The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told 7News: "United Airlines Flight 1551 landed safely at Washington Dulles International Airport around 8:30pm local time on Thursday, May 21, after the crew reported a passenger disturbance. The flight departed from Newark Liberty International Airport and was headed to Guatemala."‌It is physically impossible for a passenger to open a commercial airplane door at cruising altitude due to mechanical locks on the door and atmospheric pressure.Modern commercial airliners are designed with "plug-type" doors which means the door is physically larger than the opening frame it fits into, similar to a drain plug in a bath.To open the door, it must first be pulled slightly inward before it can be rotated or pushed outward and this would not be possible due to the pressure in the air.Article continues belowAt a typical cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, the outside air is too thin to breathe and the cabin is artificially pressursed to create a much lower altitude. This leads to a massive pressure differential: about 8 to 9 pounds of pressure pushing against every single square inch of the plane's interior.Choose Daily Mirror as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.‌Washington Dulles International AirportUnited Airlines