The woman who allegedly tried to open an exit door on a passenger jet at 4,000 feet over Seattle this week has been identified as Jeanne A. Dempsey, 52, of Dania Beach, according to the King County Prosecutor's Office.
Port of Seattle police arrested Dempsey on Wednesday and are holding her in custody as they investigate her actions, according to the prosecutor's office.
Dempsey has not been charged with a crime, but is being held in the King County prison in Washington state, with bail set at $10,000, according to the prosecutor's office.
Her next court appearance will be on Monday, when she is likely to be charged with ''malicious mischief in the first degree,'' said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
The crime, which is a felony, would not be Dempsey's first run-in with the law. On August 8, 2000, she was arrested, and later convicted, of two accounts of shoplifting and two accounts of obstruction of justice, without violence in Florida, records show.
Dempsey's latest arrest came when she left her seat aboard United Flight 1195, en route from Denver to Seattle on Wednesday, and unsuccessfully tried to open an exit door in the rear of the plane, according to authorities.
A spokesperson for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport said Dempsey eventually sat down at the urging of a flight attendant. She was arrested after the plane arrived safely in Seattle.
A spokeswoman for Boeing, which manufactures the 737 jet, said the air pressure outside the plane at the time of the incident was too great for human strength to open the door.
Nevertheless, police took Dempsey's actions seriously.
