We’ve all experienced that heart-pounding panic of racing through an airport, desperately trying to catch a flight. But do you know what you would do when you miss it?
Some people accept defeat gracefully. Some try to sweet-talk the airline’s staff. The cool ones hit the airport bar. While others… well, let’s just say they take an unconventional approach.
Buckle up and prepare your jaw to drop as we sample some of the craziest things people have done when they missed their flights!
- Onto The Tarmac
Dublin Airport, 2019. Sozzled Patrick, 24, misses his Ryanair flight to Amsterdam.
Instead of throwing in the towel, intoxicated Patrick decided to burst through a security door. Onto the tarmac he dashed, kicking and shoving everyone who stood in his way.
According to the incident report, “he was banging on the window to try and get the aircraft to wait… and made his way onto the apron, trying to flag the aircraft down.”
It was like a scene from an action movie!
Needless to say, his runway rendezvous landed him in hot water with the authorities when they eventually managed to pin him to the ground.
- Hello From The Other Side
Not to be outdone, an unnamed passenger at Madrid’s Barajas Airport conjured a grand plan when thought he missed his flight to Gran Canaria in 2018.
He clutched his bags, broke through a fire escape and jumped off an air bridge – the extendable corridor that connects airport departure gates with plane doors – and onto the asphalt of the airport in the hope of reaching his plane in time.
Ready for the plot twist? The plane he broke all the rules to catch wasn’t his! When he realised that, he somehow got to his place and made it to his destination even as the alarm sounded and the police looked around frantically.
Our guy finally got to his destination and into the arms of police who were patiently waiting for him on the other side.
- Who Shut the Door?
Just over a decade ago, Tom Wagner set on his way from LA to visit his sister in California and was due to transfer planes in Houston.
He fell asleep in his window seat at the back of the plane and kept at it as everyone else deplaned. No one came to his rescue!
“I woke up, and the lights were out. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I thought maybe it was a layover, still on the same plane,” he told the press.
His next plane was long gone by then.
He called his girlfriend, who was at first incredulous, but called the airline eventually. The airline paid to put Wagner up for a night in a Houston hotel and gave him a USD. 250 voucher for a flight to his destination, but did not refund the cost of his original flight.
“They didn’t sweep the plane! I mean, who shut the door?” Wagner told everybody who cared to listen to his side of the story.
But he only had himself to blame.
- Dumb Ways To Die
Perhaps the most shocking of all is the story of Kyler Efinger, whose missed flight led to a series of tragic events.
When held up in security and unable to check in, Efinger resorted to drastic measures in a frantic attempt to reach the departing aircraft. His actions grew increasingly frantic with every move – from futile attempts to open locked doors to striking windows with his shoe.
Ultimately, he breached an emergency exit and raced onto the tarmac, where he climbed into the turbine of the aircraft.
The madness proved fatal as he was discovered partially inside a wing-mounted engine, with the engines rotating.
Despite efforts by first responders, Efinger was pronounced dead at the scene.
- Screw It, I’ll Start My Own Airline
When he was 28 years old, Sir Richard Branson (then just a commoner) waited to catch a flight to the British Virgin Islands to be reunited with his lovely wife Joan.
His flight was cancelled at the last minute.
Branson figured there was a whole plane load of people who were going his way. So went to the back of the airport, hired a plane, and found a blackboard. As a joke, he wrote ‘Virgin Airways: $39 Single Flight’, and filled up the flight with all the bumped passengers.
As they landed, a passenger said to him: “Virgin Airways isn’t too bad – smarten up the service and you could be in business.”
He did.
The airline is now one of the best and most profitable in the world.
Nothing can top that, so let’s end this blog here.
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