Southwest Passenger Claimed ‘Jesus Told Her’ To Open Plane Door Mid-flight, Docs Say
She’ll need God on her side to get out of this one.
An unruly Southwest Airlines passenger who tried to open the aircraft’s door mid-flight, then bit another passenger, claimed “Jesus told her” to do it, according to court documents.
Elom Agbegninou, 34, was on the Ohio-bound flight from Texas on Saturday afternoon when she allegedly became frustrated that flight attendants prevented her from reaching the emergency exit, Click2Houston reported.
When a fellow passenger intervened by tackling Agbegninou, she responded by biting the person on the thigh, refusing to let go until the victim forced their fingers into her jaw.
The crazed woman then started whacking her head on the plane floor, claiming “Jesus told her to fly to Ohio and Jesus told her to open the door,” the documents released by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on Monday show.
Agbegninou was subsequently removed from the plane during an emergency landing.FOX 26 HoustonOther terrified passengers recounted the crazy confrontation.
“They were rushing to the back of the plane to help. I was thinking about the worst case, probably that plane will crash, but I know it’s a very low probability,” passenger Ding Yu told Fox News Digital about the fellow traveler intervening.
The wild disturbance ultimately forced the Southwest flight to make an emergency landing at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock around 3:30 p.M. — turning a three-hour trip into a six-hour trek.
Once safely on the ground, Agbegninou was removed by officers while the bite victim was treated with antibiotics and hepatitis shots.
Yu captured a video of the drama, which shows Agbegninou still ranting while being led off the plane.
Officers took the unruly passenger into federal custody.FOX 26 HoustonSpeaking to authorities after the incident, Agbegninou reportedly said she left home early Saturday without informing her husband and was hoping to visit a family friend in Maryland.
She also claimed she “had not flown in a long time” and “became very anxious and normally would not have done those things.”
According to the criminal complaint, Agbegninou is expected to face charges of assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction and interference with flight crew members and attendants.
It is not clear if the incident remains under investigation.
Shania Twain Opens Up About Feeling Exploited For Her Body As A Young Girl: ‘So Scary’
Shania Twain didn’t live an easy childhood. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, she recounted her stepfather being sexually and physically abusive, and as she explained in her documentary, Not Just a Girl, when she was in elementary and middle school, her mom would sneak her into bars to perform. Those experiences led her to feel very insecure as she grew into her teenage body, and she did everything she could to avoid being ogled.
“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs. I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible—you didn’t want to be a girl in my house,” the singer explained.
Those fears were only exacerbated when she got older and entered the “real world.” “Then you go into society and you’re a girl and you’re getting the normal other unpleasant stuff too, and that reinforces it. So then you think, ‘Oh, I guess it’s just sh*tty to be a girl. Oh, it’s so sh*tty to have boobs.’ I was ashamed of being a girl,” she said.
At 22, Twain was forced to throw her anxieties to the side when her parents died in a car accident and she was left to care for her younger brothers. Singing—and doing so as a flashy, attractive woman—was her key to survival. And it was terrifying.
“What was so natural for other people was so scary for me. I felt exploited, but I didn’t have a choice now,” she recalled. “I had to play the glamorous singer, had to wear my femininity more openly or more freely. And work out how I’m not gonna get groped, or raped by someone’s eyes, you know, and feel so degraded.”
Eventually—and it’s safe to say her launch to superstardom helped—Twain learned how to feel more comfortable in her own skin. And now, at 57, she’s reclaiming the time she lost by embracing her sexuality, which is one of the reasons she posed nude for her upcoming album, Queen of Me.
“I was very insecure woman, girl ... I was one of those teenagers that would never wear a bikini at the beach, for example,” she recently told TalkShopLive. “So I’m saying, well, the heck with that. I didn’t do it when I was younger, so I’m going to do it now. I’m going to feel and show that I feel comfortable in my own skin.”
Queen of Me features anthems that empower Twain and her fans to unapologetically celebrate themselves. “I am celebrating escaping this horrible state of not wanting to be who I am. And I’m so confident, now that I discovered that it’s OK to be a girl,” she told The Sunday Times. “The unapologetic woman is a very powerful person indeed.”
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer who reports on all things health and nutrition for Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Prevention. Her hobbies include perpetual coffee sipping and pretending to be a Chopped contestant while cooking.
Idina Menzel Opens Up About Her IVF Journey: 'It Just Wasn't Meant To Be'
Idina Menzel is pulling back the curtain on her journey with in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
Ahead of her documentary Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage?, Menzel spoke with PEOPLE about undergoing IVF on tour, and why having another child ultimately "wasn't meant to be."
The Tony winner has one son, 13-year-old Walker, with ex-husband Taye Diggs. Three years after her and Diggs' 2014 divorce, she married actor Aaron Lohr, and having kids wasn't initially in the new couple's plans.
"Maybe before meeting me, [Lohr] didn't think he wanted to have kids, and then he sees how good of a dad he can be," Menzel tells PEOPLE. "So I wanted that for him."
In the Disney+ documentary, which shows a mix of moments from Menzel's life and her 2018 national tour, the singer reveals that her feelings about having more kids changed along with Lohr's: "I didn't think I wanted to have a baby but then Aaron has been the most amazing man to my son."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Disney+The documentary cameras go backstage with Menzel, following her from venue to venue, but also join her at doctor's appointments and in the vulnerable moments following her IVF treatments.
"I'm literally going through stuff that I'm shooting into my body and I don't know how that's going to affect my voice," she says, reflecting on the "balancing act."
"And it may force me to make extra trips to get back and forth to the doctor in addition to making trips to get home to my family," she adds. "And all of that isn't great on your body when you're trying to have a baby."
The "Let It Go" singer tells PEOPLE that her choice to include these "emotional" and "physical" moments in the film, which was originally just going to be a standard tour documentary, wasn't contingent on whether she was ultimately able to become pregnant.
"No matter what the outcome, I just wanted women to feel seen in this film and people to understand what we go through," she says. "It was important to me to forgo the privacy of that and allow people to have a little window into that experience."
Four years after wrapping the tour, Menzel says she's content with the results of her IVF journey, noting that she and Lohr have "moved beyond that."
"I have this amazing son and I was fortunate enough to have him," the singer says. "And the pregnancy was pretty easy and I conceived easily, and there's a lot of people that don't even get to have that."
Disney+Menzel also shares that Lohr "feels really loved that I even tried and put my body through that."
"I think going through all that, you're so exhausted by it that finally, it becomes apparent like, 'I don't want to do this anymore and it just wasn't meant to be,' and you're resolved in that," she says.
"He sees Walker as his own kid at this point anyway," she says of Lohr. "I think we feel content and lucky with what we have."
Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage? Premieres Dec. 9 on Disney+.
