A woman was arrested after running onto the tarmac at Canberra Airport in Australia last week. She reportedly tried to stop the QantasLink flight to Adelaide that she missed as the aircraft was taxiing to the runway. Onlookers in the terminal recorded her dumb, desperate run to the plane before she decided to return inside, where the police were waiting.
The woman pushed past airline staff after missing her flight, ran down the jetway and then down onto the tarmac. The security alarm is audible in the video of the woman finally giving up.
It’s not clear if she genuinely thought that the flight crew would just open the door to let her climb onboard but eventually realised that wouldn’t happen.
She was arrested by the Australian Federal Police when she returned to the terminal, Nine News says. Authorities charged her with entering the airside portion of the airport without permission, damaging property and cannabis possession. She was granted bail on Friday and will face trial at a later date.
The airport tarmac is a hazardous workplace. Ground crew have been sucked into jet turbines or hit by support vehicles. Animal intrusions are usually dealt with swiftly and lethally when they happen. Once the airliner’s door closes, that flight is gone. It doesn’t matter if you can see the plane. No airline would let a random passenger run out there to climb onto the jet.
Image: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg (Getty Images)