United Airlines flight attendant pulled emergency slide, walked away

A United Airlines flight attendant pulled the emergency slide and exited a parked plane at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Monday morning.

The flight from Sacramento landed at the airport at 11:26 a.m. and taxied for five minutes. 

After the Boeing 737 made a complete stop at the gate, the flight attendant opened the plane's front door, deployed the emergency slide, slid out and walked away. 

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"When we landed ... we were told to stay in our seats as de-planing would take a bit longer,” passenger Jonah Vella told local news station Click 2 Houston. "Everything seemed to be pretty standard."

According to the station, there was a medical emergency happening at the back of the plane at the same time that diverted passengers' attentions. 

There were 159 passengers onboard the flight, plus six crew members, including the flight attendant in question.

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While the flight attendant's motive is not immediately clear, United said that they believe the action was done intentionally.

"We hold all of our employees to the highest standard," the airline said in a statement. "The unsafe behavior is unacceptable and does not represent the more than 20,000 flight attendants who ensure the safety of our customers." 

The airline removed the flight attendant "from her flying duties."

The plane was shortly taken out of service for inspection and then continued onto Fort Lauderdale after a 40 minute delay.

Bush Intercontinental Airport confirmed to Mashable that the incident did not affect airport operations.

United did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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