Passengers on board an easyJet plane were reportedly astonished yesterday as they saw a man try to stop the jet as it prepared to take off.
According to the Daily Mail, the man was seen “frantically waving his boarding card towards the aircraft and demanding to be let on” the flight from Nice to Luton.
The man, believed to be in his forties, is said to have evaded airport security and ran within a yard of the Boeing 737-700. The newspaper quotes one passenger as saying: “The man came across to the plane bold as brass. He had his coat over one arm and was desperately waving a boarding pass in the other as if to say ‘Open up – I want to get on!’ I thought maybe they were going to let him on. But he just stood there while the engines started up. It was so dangerous.”
EasyJet reportedly confirmed that the flight had been delayed by 20 minutes, and that there had been a breach of security at Nice. The Mail reports that officials at Nice claimed to know nothing about the incident, “suggesting either acute embarrassment on the part of the French authorities or a degree of indifference about security.”
Amusingly, it appears that the man – who according to some witnesses appeared to be drunk was actually chasing the wrong plane. He was actually meant to be flying to Gatwick.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd www.newsfromabroad.com
