Footage captures the shocking moment a woman who missed her flight ran onto the tarmac in a desperate bid to catch her plane.
Many of us will have faced a less-than-dignified jog through the airport after miscalculating our timings slightly, having been halfway through a bottle of Prosecco before suddenly hearing the last call for our flight.
It’s probably fair to say, though, that we’ve never been tempted to actually run out onto the tarmac – which is exactly what one woman did recently in Australia, much to the shock of others.
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The female traveller was spotted at Canberra Airport in Majura on Wednesday, having allegedly run past airport security and onto the tarmac.
She was arrested by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) at 7.30pm that evening, with the BBC reporting an AFP spokesperson said the woman had been refused bail, and was due to appear in court today.
According to 9News, she was seen waving at the pilot to let her onto the QantasLink flight to Adelaide.
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Onlookers said the 'bizarre' scenes left many people baffled, but fortunately the pilot was able to 'kill the engine' before the situation went any further.
Eyewitness Dennis Bilic, who recorded the incident, told the Australian outlet: "People were a bit flat-footed, they didn't seem to know what to do, that was the weird part.
"(We were thinking) 'Is anyone gonna stop her?'"
Simon Hales also saw the action unfold, adding: “She's trying to yell at the pilot, she's trying to get his attention and jump up, it was bizarre."
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He had also taken to Facebook to speak about the incident, explaining what happened.
"A lady who had missed her flight clearly thought she could still catch it," the post said.
"[She] pushed past the staff at the door, ran down onto the tarmac and ran up to the plane.
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"Luckily the pilot was warned or spotted her and killed the engine."
9News said flights at Canberra Airport were delayed – but thankfully only for about 10 minutes – and operations soon ‘returned to normal’.
The AFP told the outlet that it would provide more details ‘at an appropriate time’, and confirmed an investigation into the incident has been launched.
Tyla has reached out to the AFP for comment.