Faced with the stress and inconvenience of missing a flight, most people would throw themselves on the mercy of their airline or seek solace in the airport bar. Not so one traveller, who decided he had to be on the aeroplane from Madrid to the Canary Islands last Friday.



A video, shot by airport workers and posted on Facebook, shows the unidentified man clutching his bags and jumping off an air bridge – the extendable corridor that connects airport departure gates with plane doors – and on to the asphalt of Barajas airport in the hope of reaching his plane in time.

“This is how passengers in Madrid behave when they don’t arrive in time to catch their planes,” read the post. “This particular passenger missed his Ryanair flight and, however incredible it may seem, got through the different security procedures that [Spain’s airport authority] Aena has in place at its airports.”

The poster went on to note that Spain is on its second highest anti-terror alert level.

A spokesman for Aena confirmed the incident had taken place at about 9pm on 5 August.

“The passenger had reached the gate with his boarding pass after clearing security,” he said. “He broke through a fire escape, the doors opened and he got out that way.”

Although the alarm was sounded and the Guardia Civil were called, he added, the man still managed to board his flight and get to Gran Canaria, where he was arrested by police.

The spokesman stressed that the man, who has not been named, had passed the required security checks, adding: “This person had cleared security and had no terrorist motivations. He was never suspected of being a terrorist.”

The Guardia Civil said that while the man had been stopped by airport workers and told to wait for the police, he had not done so. “It seems that he got on to the tarmac because he’d missed his flight but the plane he was trying to get on wasn’t his,” said a spokeswoman. “When he realised that, he got on the flight to Gran Canaria.”

The spokeswoman said that after being questioned by officers on the island, the man had been released but would still face punishment.

Ryanair declined to comment on what it termed a “security breach”, saying it was a matter for Madrid airport police.