Witnesses have told how a teen jumped out of a plane's emergency exit and slid down its wing just moments after it touched down, scaring other passengers.
Customers on Tuesday's Copa Airlines flight from Panama City to San Francisco were stunned to see the 17-year-old fling open the door open and simply hop out.
Construction workers stopped the boy on the tarmac and police arrived to detain him.
Perturbed eyewitness Sophia Gibson told San Jose's KNTV: "It was as if he was like flying out, like it was really fast."
Another witness, Andrea Sepulveda Guzman, 11, told CBS San Francisco that "everyone was screaming" as the unexplained drama unfolded.
"This guy, I see him jump on the wing and then he starts climbing down the wing and then he just runs. And then he just starts running the other way. And everyone was just screaming," she said.
Other passengers told news agency the Associated Press that the boy had seemed fidgety and anxious immediately prior to his speedy exit.
Officials have not yet said why the teen is thought to have done it, but San Francisco Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said he was travelling alone and that no runways or flights had been affected.
A crew member resealed the emergency door and the plane then disembarked normally, the airline said in a statement.
It added that an investigation was now underway.
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