Sometimes passengers get tired of waiting onboard a flight, and pop the slide to get out. That’s a bad idea.
Sometimes passengers are late to a flight and pound on the door to the jetway, wanting to be let on. It’s frustrating when a gate agent closes the door early. But pounding isn’t usually going to help, though you might get a sympathetic pilot if you don’t get arrested first.
Running out onto the tarmac and chasing after your plane though is a very bad idea. Nonetheless a passenger in Melbourne, Australia who was late for his flight to Adelaide on Jetstar, the low cost Qantas subsidiary, decided to try it.
He “missed his flight Thursday bolted out across the airport’s tarmac, ran up the stairs to a plane, and tried to rip open the locked cabin door” — and was caught on video doing it.
.@AusFedPolice officers have taken a man into custody after he ran across the tarmac then tried to rip open plane door. Three @JetstarAirways staff were allegedly attacked in the process. See the pictures tonight on @9NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/zBFsKVDr6d
— Kieran Jones (@kieranjones_9) May 17, 2018
A passenger reports that the man “was trying to get up the stairs, he was physically fighting with the staff, punching and scratching them.”
It turns out he was banging on the wrong plane. The aircraft he’s shown banging on was headed to Sydney. He has since been banned from travel on both Jetstar and Qantas.
(HT: Meg Butler)
If only this type of thing was limited to DeathStar.
I banged on the gate door once and was let in. That was in the 90’s, United, IAH. The door had closed 3 seconds earlier.
I banged on the glass once and they re-opened the door and the door to the plane. That was also in the 90’s. Northwest Airlink / Express Airlines I, CHA (Chattanooga, TN)
There was a time when a flyer with high status could convince them to open the jetway door after it was shut. Not anymore. I once actually watched the gate door shut as I was running to the gate. Late – because the arriving connecting flight was late. Same airline. Since I had nothing else to do for the three hours till the next flight, I just watched the plane sit at the gate. 20 minutes of ultimate frustration. This is when I just say to myself – there will be bad flying days – this is one – relax.
Good to see that the collapse of the American Empire has now spread to other English speaking countries
I have had the same experience as David. I tried to reason with the gate agent to no avail. No once has any discretion to make decisions nowdays. And the plane sar at the gate for another 45 minutes!
Good thing the Flight attendants hadn’t armed the door slide!