Man Dangled From Jet Bridge After Missing His Flight, Slipped Onto Airport Tarmac

We’ve all been running late for a flight, wondering whether we’d make it. I’ve scanned my boarding pass at the last minute, with gate agents closing the boarding door immediately behind me, and I’ve also shown up just as the door has been slammed in my face. In either case, I’ve been at the mercy of an airline employee at my gate.

One man in Malaga wasn’t going to let his fate be determined by a gate agent. His flight was departing. It was pushing back from the jet bridge. I guess he doesn’t realize that they close the door to the aircraft before doing that? Because he somehow thinks that maybe he’ll be able to jump from the jetway onto the aircraft if he makes it just in time as it pulls back…

Here’s twitter’s translation:

Surreal what happened at Malaga airport.

The person who appears hanging from the finger had lost his plane, but insists on chasing him to be able to board.

It is unknown if he achieved his goal and the legal actions that will be taken against him.

So the man found himself at the end of the jet bridge with no aircraft there. He seems to debate jumping down onto the tarmac instead of turning back around and heading back into the terminal. Only he slips and winds up on his back and bum, and a groundworker helps him to his feet.

(HT: M.A.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Pingbacks

Comments

  1. I missed a connecting flight to Honolulu because of the weather in San Francisco. I didn’t do this. One of the airline employees saw me and my son in the wheelchair at the end of a long line because of the missed flight. He took us up front and got us on the next flight that same day.

  2. Lars…I hope by now you realize what a stupid comment you left a few hours ago. This is yet another case for Gary to moderate the comments before posting them.

  3. It’s the gate agents fault for letting him through the gate door. When I was younger I worked for an airline at the gate. The door was ALWAYS closed 10 mins before departure. I’d go down to the plane with the updated manifest. Get an OK from in the cockpit, say bye to the FA’s…and they’d close the door. Jetbridge is pulled back. Plane is departing, no coming back.

    Once back at the gate podium, that’s it.

    NOW between 10 – 5 mins prior to departure, if I have come back up to the gate, and the jetbridge is still attached to the plane, someone shows up and I know I am going back onboard – THEN I will quickly scan their boarding pass, and if everything is ok…I reprint the manifest and take them down with me. That would be the only exception.

    I’ve had people turn up at the gate, begging me to get the plane back. It was a solid NO! Wait for the next flight. If they were erratic, misbehaved, or threatening, I’d just Rule 35 them for the day, and they were going nowhere. Simple 🙂 I was in my early 20s, but I did not play around, and no passenger messed with me. I was a sweetheart (plane nerd) until a passenger misbehaved.

    What’s happening in the video, would NEVER have happened with me. The gate agent should be fired. 🙂

  4. Well, if they let him onto the jetway, isn’t it reasonable for him to assume there’ll be plane waiting for him on the other end? And when there wasn’t, a bit of perplexity and uncertainty is understandable.

  5. You can’t fix stupid. Good thing he appears to land on his backpack, cushioning the fall.

Comments are closed.