Two passengers who missed an Aeroflot flight at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport apparently decided they were not ready to give up.
In unusual footage, the women can be seen running across the airport apron, with one dragging a trolley suitcase behind her, as they try to reach an aircraft that had already been pushed away from the gate.
Missed their flight and ran after the plane with a trolley bag
Ground crews were forced to halt the pushback operation, while airport staff and police were called to remove the pair from the restricted operational area.
The incident took place on July 25, but the video gained widespread attention online only in the past day after appearing on aviation site View From The Wing and on X accounts including FL360aero and Breaking Aviation News & Videos.
By the time the women reached the apron, the aircraft’s doors had already been closed and the plane was in the process of being pushed back from the gate. According to View From The Wing, their appearance in the operational area required ground crews to stop the maneuver.
Contrary to some reports circulating online, the women were not running on an active runway. They were on the apron, a restricted area where aircraft are pushed back, refueled and serviced.
FL360aero described the incident as an unauthorized incursion into a secured area, noting that such access can endanger passengers, ground workers and aircraft operations. Even if the women had managed to stop the aircraft, there was effectively no way for them to board.
Gary Leff, editor of View From The Wing, noted that the aircraft doors were already closed and the plane had been moved away from the gate, meaning it would have had to be returned to its parking position or passenger stairs brought out specially. “There was no scenario where they were actually getting onto the plane,” he wrote.
The incident is not the first in which late passengers have decided to chase an aircraft. Last November, at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany, two passengers who missed a Wizz Air flight entered the operational area and ran toward the aircraft while its engines were already running and it was waiting for departure. They were detained and handed over to police.
A similar incident occurred in May in Tyumen, Russia, where a passenger who missed a flight to Norilsk entered the operational area in an attempt to stop the plane. He was later fined 3,000 rubles.
First published: 21:47, 08.08.26