- Passengers at an Australian airport watched as a woman ran onto the tarmac, apparently to catch a missed flight.
- Australian police told Insider the woman was arrested and charged in the incident on Wednesday.
A woman was arrested at an airport in Australia on Wednesday after she was seen running onto the tarmac in an apparent effort to wave down the flight she seemingly missed.
Passengers at Canberra Airport captured the woman's futile mission in a video that shows her standing below the QantasLink plane just moments before it was set to depart as she tries to get the pilot's attention.
She can then be seen turning around and walking back toward the airport after the pilot refused to let her board.
An woman who apparently missed her flight tried to catch it by running after the QantasLink Embraer E190AR plane (VH-XVO) on the tarmac.
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) November 2, 2023
The strange incident was captured at Canberra Airport (CBR) on Nov 01, 2023. On chase, woman started waving at the pilot.
Dennis Bilic pic.twitter.com/rKw7p1xsKN
Alarm bells can be heard in the back of the passenger video, which was obtained by Australian outlet 9News.
A spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police told Insider the woman was arrested and charged in the incident on Wednesday.
Authorities charged her with entering an airside area or security zone without permission; damaging property; and possession of a small quantity of cannabis, the spokesperson said.
The woman was refused bail and is set to appear in court on Friday, according to police.
A witnesses who observed the spectacle from the gate told 9News that passengers were shocked she made it as far as she did.
"People were a bit flat-footed, they didn't seem to know what to do, that was the weird part," Dennis Bilic, who recorded the ordeal, told the outlet.
Bilic said passengers were wondering whether anyone would be able to stop her.
Flights at the airport were only delayed about 10 minutes due to the incident, 9News reported.
In 2021, a female passenger was detained by police at Los Angeles International Airport after trying to flag down a landed aircraft.