Passengers restrain man who tried to open plane door mid-flight

DENVER - Colorado passengers on a Frontier flight endured some frightening moments early Saturday morning when a man tried to open the plane's rear door mid-flight.

According to witnesses, a young man on the red-eye flight 514 headed from Denver to New York's LaGuardia Airport tried to open the back door of the plane mid-flight.

One of the 128 passengers, Bobby Vigil, told 9NEWS it happened less than an hour before landing and the plane was able to land safely without harm to any other passengers.

Vigil of Estes Park says the young man sat next to him and was acting strange the entire flight.

"Within 30 seconds to a minute, he stood back up, which I thought was odd. I turn around and hear the flight attendant yelling for someone to help her because he tried to open up the back door of the plane," said Vigil.

According to Frontier Airlines spokesman Joe Hodas, the plane door was never opened during the flight. Hodas says there are safety features in place to safeguard the door and the suspect would have had to take several other steps to open it.

Vigil and other passengers were able to help flight attendant tie the man down to his seat with duct tape.

"The whole rest of the flight, all the way in, he was yelling and trying to bite the tape, and they ended up restraining him with an extra lap belt," said Vigil.

Police arrested the suspect after the plane landed at LaGuardia Saturday morning.