A woman ran out onto the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday night as she attempted to get close to an aircraft. An a...
A woman ran out onto the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday night as she attempted to get close to an aircraft.
An alarm went off as the woman walked through the door to a gate and down steps onto the tarmac at Terminal 1 at around 6:30 p.m.
Footage of the bizarre moment was captured by a fellow passenger who was sitting, waiting at a gate in the Southwest Airlines terminal of LAX.
Tezlyn Figaro captured footage of the woman's arrest and posted it to Twitter.
'Wow, I'm sitting here at LAXairport & this white young lady runs out the door & on the tarmac trying to wave a plane down. It seems like it took the police forever to get here. If she were Black, she would be shot (with no questions asked),' Figaro wrote.
A woman rushed out onto the tarmac at LAX on Monday night
Shocked passengers looked on from the terminal building as the woman attempted to reach a waiting aircraft
Figaro, who is black, explained how the woman opened the door to gate 12B and ran down the stairs onto the tarmac.
'The girl ran past me & ran out the exit door, down the steps and onto the tarmac to stop a plane! A Southwest employee ran down the steps to stop her. The police eventually showed up and handled her with care.I recorded because I do not see Black people treated this way.'
The woman appeared to be extremely distressed as she ran around the tarmac while trying to escape the clutches of a man who was dressed in black who attempted to restrain her.
At one point she managed to get extremely close to the waiting aircraft and was pulled away and pushed back by the man.
The woman could be seen struggling with a man extremely close to a jet engine
Other airport workers in fluorescent jackets did little to hold the woman back
Airport workers seemed surprised that the passenger had made it out onto the tarmac
An unidentified man in black attempted to restrain the woman as she approached the jet
Other airport employees wearing fluorescent vests gathered around the area but stood back as she tried several times to get close to the Boeing 737 Southwest jet.
Shortly afterwards, police arrived on the scene and began to conduct a search of the woman's bag.
Around seven police officers and a K-9 went through the passenger's possessions while she was handcuffed with her hands placed her back.
There did not appear to be a struggle of any kind and she was not forced to the ground as might normally be the case for such a breach of security.
'I'm amazed at how GENTLE LAPD is with this white girl that ran on the tarmac at LAX (federal offense) no weapons were drawn, they brought the firefighter for medical attention,' Figaro wrote in a final tweet before her own flight left for the evening.
It took time before police were on the scene at the Southwest Airlines terminal
When the woman was finally restrained she was placed in handcuffs while police officers searched her belongings without placing her on the ground
'Airline employees who witnessed the woman exiting the terminal followed security protocols and maintained visual contact until the airport police arrived shortly thereafter and detained the woman,' LAX said in a statement.
LAX Airport say the woman told police she was trying to flag down a plane, which was still parked in the gate area.
The woman was taken into custody and transported to a hospital for minor injuries and for a mental health evaluation.
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