An early morning Ryanair flight from Dublin to Amsterdam saw a bit of a commotion last week. Well…the commotion was land-side. A man arrived late, and the boarding door was already closed. After becoming belligerent with gate staff, he started banging on the window. ‘Cause that is really gonna help you get on that plane.
Eventually, he was able to break through a door that headed out to the apron and attempted to flag the plane down. Ryanair staff restrained him while they waited for airport police to arrive, who had already been called. Now he is facing a criminal damage charge in addition to missing his flight.
Watching your “departed” flight depart
I get it. It’s tough arriving at the gate just minutes (or seconds) after that door closes. The gate agents have to draw the line somewhere, but it can be aggravating if you fall on the wrong side. You get to sit there and watch your “departed” flight sit at the gate for yet a little while longer, all the while thinking, “it’s been more than enough time for me to get on and settled.”
One of my least favorite travel experiences was missing a Southwest flight. I was on a United inbound and stupidly gave myself only 2 hours between flights at LAX. Given that our United flight ended up getting to the gate over an hour late, I ultimately missed my flight by about 5 minutes. I then watched my plane depart (and then 3 more full 737s) before I finally got a seat flying standby, thanks to the “flat tire rule”.
Just don’t resort to chasing your plane down like this guy did. It’ll just end in a scuffle with airport police and probably some social media posts and a news story, just like this one.
I’m not sure what he was going to do had he actually caught it anyway. Climb the landing gear?
Note: I do know that the area where planes park is actually called the apron. Tarmac is still just too colloquial.Â
Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Recent Comments