Falls Two Stories, Suffers Possible Broken Back

A man being deported from the US is responsible for an unusual incident Tuesday at Detroit's Metropolitan Airport.

Police said 26-year-old Yong Sheng Zhu, a Chinese national, boarded Northwest Airlines 747 (file photo of type, above) bound for Japan -- and then jumped out the emergency exit before the plane left the gate.

Zhu -- who was being deported back to China after overstaying his visa -- opened the rear emergency door and jumped 20 feet onto the ground below. Immigration officials who had escorted him to his seat -- and then remained in the jetway to make sure the aircraft took off -- noticed Zhu on the tarmac.

"That is a tremendous jump," said Gregory Palmore with the Department of Homeland Security to WXYZ-TV. "That’s basically equivalent to jumping of a second story building. We find it strange because individuals are aware that they are going to be removed from the country and I’m sure, at some point, it’s built into their database, their mind that they’re going to return home."

Zhu is now recovering from a possible broken back.

Prior to Tuesday's incident, Zhu had "no criminal history. He’s been vetted through all the databases to make sure he wasn’t a public safety threat. We wouldn’t have put an individual on a plane that would have been a safety threat to the passengers," said Palmore.

Once Zhu is able to travel, officials say he will be put on another China-bound plane... this time, with an escort for the entire trip.

FMI: http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm