Man accused of opening JetBlue emergency door in Boston released on $500 bail
BOSTON - A Puerto Rican man is on his way home with his parents after posting bail for allegedly throwing open an emergency door on a Puerto Rica-bound JetBlue flight Tuesday night, while it was taxiing on the runway.
"This is a highly unfortunate circumstance, I see this more as a medical issue than a criminal one," said his attorney Robert Carmel-Montes outside East Boston District Court where 23-year-old Angel Luis Morales Torres was released on a charge of interfering with aircraft operation.
He says Morales Torres, whose alleged actions triggered an emergency slide to inflate, has no immediate recollection of what happened and suffered a psychotic episode with mental health issues dating back to childhood.
Passengers describe chaotic scene on plane
Passengers including Fred and Tammy Wynn describe a chaotic scene after hearing what Fred says was an argument going on in the seats behind him between Morales Torres and his ex-girlfriend.
"He was so agitated, I guess his girl was looking at something on her cellphone, and he wanted to see what she was looking at and she wouldn't give him the phone to look at and that's what set him off," said Wynn. "There were a lot of people crying, a lot of people were yelling stop," said Tammy Wynn.
An off-duty FBI agent was able to subdue him and cuff him before state police arrived. "He basically went through a fog and just was not aware of what was happening until he came to," said Carmel-Montes.
Morales Torres was in Boston attending a graduation ceremony for an Air Force friend. The electrical engineering student in Puerto Rico is now allowed to return home with his parents who arrived in Boston Wednesday morning, his mother calling him "a good boy."
Passengers finally made it to their warm destination, inconvenienced but relieved. "I'm grateful it happened on the ground and not in the air," said Tammy Wynn.
Released on $500 bail
Morales Torres, whose parents posted $500 bail, has been ordered to live with them and not travel except to Massachusetts for future court appearances. "He needs help to get back on track. He's a young man with a future ahead of him and everyone has to pick up the pieces," said Carmel-Montes.