Do not get on the wing of a plane that is about to take off

On Saturday, December 12, a man climbing on the wing of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 while the plane it was on the runway waiting for take off, in the United States. After climbing the wing a bit and trying to scale its end, he fell to the ground and was stopped by airport officials. While I’m sure he had a perfectly logical explanation for why he decided to do this, it has yet to be made public.

It appears that the man, whose identity has not been disclosed, jumped a perimeter fence around McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, United States, and made his way to the runway. Apparently, security doesn’t seem to be too tight around those tracks.

Here is a video of the entire strange event, filmed by a passenger inside the plane:

This is really insane. I find it strangely interesting that you tried to hold onto the wingtip (or winglet, known in Spanish as a wingtip device), having apparently determined that the best way to do this would be by removing his shoes and socks, which he tossed to the side of the wing, to get a better grip on the polished aluminum surface using his barefoot.

It is also notable that the security teams sent three other people to the wing to stop the climber. If you’ve ever wondered about the strength of an airplane’s wings, this should be a good demonstration that they are quite tough, given that they are not affected by four adults walking on them. I’m sure aerodynamic stresses are a lot more demanding than just standing up to one guy doing something stupid and three cops.

After the man fell from the wing, paramedics took him to a medical facility, and the police suspect that this had to do with drug use or perhaps some mental problem, two quite different theories.

The flight, which was originally going to take off at 12:30 pm on that Saturday, it was delayed more than four hours, taking off at 4:48 pm This time allowed the airline to inspect the wing, which is generally not open for pedestrian use.

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