A stoned woman was so desperate to get on a Qantas flight to Adelaide that she tried to chase the plane down the tarmac and catch the captain’s attention before it could take off.
In Australia, A Stoned Woman Runs After Qantas Aircraft
The incident occurred at Canberra Airport in Australian Capital Territory, where one onlooker described what happened when a 43-year-old woman decided she needed to board a QantasLink flight from Canberra (CBR) to Adelaide (ADL):
“…a lady who had clearly missed her flight decided she could still catch it. Pushed past the staff at the door and ran down onto the tarmac and ran up to the plane.
“Literally standing underneath it next the front wheel. Lucky the pilot was warned or spotted her and killed the engine…
“Here is the thing at no point even with plenty of staff around no one stopped her. So much for security.”
White it appeared that she “clearly missed her flight” it turned out that she was not a Qantas passenger at all. Instead, it appears she was just stoned (when she was arrested, cannabis was found on her possession).
Some video of the “runway model” trying to reason with the captain before giving up and returning to the terminal:
https://twitter.com/TheFullDen/status/1719633995951129025?s=20
For her actions, she was arrested by the Australian Federal Police. She has now faces charges including:
- two counts of damaging property
- one count of entering a security zone without permission
- one count of possessing a small quantity of cannabis
She has undergone a mental health assessment and will appear in court later today.
Maybe she just waned to tell the pilots, “Good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
CONCLUSION
Initial reports suggested she was a Qantas passengers but it has since been revealed that she was not even on the flight she was trying to catch. It seems to me that the only thing that would drive such behavior was the cannabis she was arrested with, perhaps mixed with other drugs…
But the serious matter here is the breach: it seems to me she was allowed to be on the tarmac for far too long.
image: Bahnfrend (I superimposed the woman on it)
I think more to the story. The last thing on earth weed makes you do is run down a runway chasing a commercial airplane.
She should try the “Mushroom Defense” like the AS pilot.
There are enough issues about mushrooms in Australian courts at the moment!
43 is really too old to be chasing planes on the runway. It’s amazing she got so far.
Her sentence? Time served, and a lifetime pass for Spirit.
In reality, I imagine this will be another one that is swept under the rug and dismissed with little consequences for the person at fault as ‘unfortunate’ or the handy catch-all of the 2020s, ‘mental health-related’. However, the danger and the inconvenience posed to those not at fault will remain unaddressed.
Roughly 12 years ago, I saw something remotely similar in the US. The flight had moved to a new gate, shared with another flight. Both flights were Delta Connection, I believe. It appeared that a passenger didn’t realize that their flight boarded. The passenger opened a terminal emergency exit, causing an alarm to go off, said “oops”, and did not walk out. Security scolded the passenger and reset the door. No arrest.
That brings back an old memory. I remember as a kid (several decades ago) there were emergency exit doors at the airport gates that were alarmed. Sure they had a big red sign, and funny handle/opening mechanism so that you wouldn’t mistake it for a regular door, but people were always accidentally opening those doors.
Probably every other time you went to the airport some knucklehead set off the alarm. A staff member would reset the door, it was totally normal, and no law enforcement involved.
In those days, you went to the gates every time you went to the airport even if you were just dropping off or picking up. You could have a nice relaxing time there waiting at the gates– sit in a chair with a little TV on it that you put a quarter in to watch 8 minutes of TV and smoke a cigarette.
Love your Airplane! references 😀
Cannabis is still illegal in Australia? I think their government is less representative of the actual population that ours (USA) is.