Two people and their service dog used the emergency slide to slip off a plane that was preparing to take off from LaGuardia Airport on Monday morning.
The passengers opened a cabin door, activated the slide and took off while the Delta flight to Atlanta, Georgia, was leaving the runway, said an airline spokesman.
The couple was taken into custody by the port authority police, but were not charged since Monday night, WPIX-TV reported.
Brian Plummer, who was also on Flight 462, told The New York Times that he saw the man, woman and their puppy changing several times as the plane prepared to leave.
Then the man got up from his chair, telling a flight attendant that he could not sit down because of his post-traumatic stress disorder.
“If I sit down, it will scare me,” the man said, according to Plummer.
No one was injured in the incident.
The plane, which was scheduled to take off shortly before 10 a.m., returned to the gate, where the rest of the passengers were transported on other flights, the airline spokesman said.
“Maintenance technicians have evaluated the aircraft and it is scheduled to return to service tonight,” he added in a statement.