Man Denied Boarding On United Heads to Tarmac, Steals Luggage Tug, and Drives Off

This morning a United Airlines passenger scheduled to fly from Orlando to Chicago was denied boarding when airline personnel decided he was “behaving erratically.” (Other reports say “belligerently“.)

He proved them right, because his next move was to push his way onto the jetway, open an emergency door down to the tarmac — then hop into a luggage tug, and drive away.

It turns out he was a pretty good driver, because he “stayed on a taxiway and did not venture onto any of the airport’s runways.”

The incident came to an end when he “stopped at an airport fire station” and was apprehended by a fireman there. He has since been taken into custody.

It’s not immediately clear from news reports whether he was scheduled to fly on United flight 2005 at 7:40am or United 272 at 9:05am.

(HT: @AirlineWriter)

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 »

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Comments

  1. It’s Christmas who what when , why , even though he’s acting the way he did, he stood his ground, I could see if he’s on alcohol, to be denied? Wake up people, he may have family waiting for him! Even though think about that for a second, question is number one in all airports!

  2. Could we stop reporting those stupid acts & behaviors? It is getting depressing how much of a race to the bottom our fellow human beings are achieving

  3. @RB can we stop having these stupid acts and behaviors of idiots who should never travel. These people have already won the race to the bottom, they are scumbags who need to be banded from all planes, trains and automobiles.

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