This is the moment fearless passengers tackle a man to the ground and duct tape him after he tried to open the door mid-flight on an American Airlines plane to Chicago.

Footage shows five men on American Airlines flight 1219 holding down the unruly passenger after he tried to open the emergency exit door 30 minutes after the plane departed Albuquerque International Sunport.

Due to the incident, which saw fellow passengers restrain the man with duck-tape, the Boeing 737 had to return to New Mexico and landed back in Albuquerque at 2.40pm MST yesterday.

One of the fearless passengers taking on the man was Zach Etkind, host of the Barstool Sports series Donnie Does.

He shared images of the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: ’30 minutes after departing Albuquerque I was shaken out of my Panda Express and Tequila induced stupor by a man trying to aggressively open the airplane door 4 rows back. 

Do you know the arrested passenger? Email miriam.kuepper@mailonline.co.uk 

Footage shows five men on American Airlines flight 1219 holding down an unruly passenger after he tried to open the emergency exit door 30 minutes after the plane departed Albuquerque International Sunport for Chigago

An American Airlines crew member was seen on video as he used duct tape to restrain the unnamed man’s legs as well as flex cuffs for his hands

‘Me and 5 other dudes had to wrestle him into the aisle, duct tape his legs, and throw flexi-cuffs on him.’ 

He later shared a picture of the man being led off the aircraft by police with the caption: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!’ 

After his heroic intervention, Etkind told Fox News: ‘At the moment there was just too much going on to be panicking, but it was very scary.’ 

He said he was about to fall asleep when the commotion around the unruly passenger caused him to jump out of his seat and help other flyers who were trying to subdue the man.

‘So I jumped out of my seat, ran over, and we probably had about like four or five guys who were trying to rip off this guy who was clinging to and pulling at the [emergency door] handle,’ he added.

‘Once we got him off of the door, we moved him to the aisle, and we all held down his legs and arms.’

Another passenger wrote on X how she felt ‘a huge gush of wind come out of nowhere’ when the passenger tried to open the emergency door.

The picture above shows the unruly passenger being led off and arrested by local law enforcement officers

An American Airlines crew member was seen on video as he used duct tape to restrain the unnamed man’s legs as well as flex cuffs for his hands.

The man was put in an empty row of seats at the back of the plane until the aircraft landed back in Albuquerque. 

Footage shows him being led off and arrested by local law enforcement officers. 

The Albuquerque Division of the FBI is reportedly investigating the incident. 

A spokesperson for American Airlines told Dailymail.com: ‘American Airlines flight 1219 with service from Albuquerque (ABQ) to Chicago (ORD) returned to ABQ shortly after takeoff due to a disturbance in the cabin involving a disruptive customer. 

‘The flight landed safely and the aircraft was met by local law enforcement upon arrival.’