Wednesday, May 14, 2008

"Air Force One Dropped Me Off"

So it seems a drunk guy managed to wander onto the runway in Dallas. That's quite a trick, getting onto airside, crossing the apron, and heading either down the taxiway or across the rough all the way to the runway. Those expanses of pavement are bigger than they look.

It sounds like someone who released him from a drunk tank may be at fault for leaving him on airside, as opposed to him actually getting through an airside door. But stranger things have happened.

Personally, I would have gone with "little green men" over "Air Force One."

7 comments:

John Schlosser said...

I work at a repair station at a decent sized municipal airport and we once had to escort two men and a boy from our ramp because they thought it was a good idea to walk back from a restaurant on the field to the fbo on the airport side of the fence. Good thing we had no planes leaving at the time.

brian said...

The news report said DFW and your aiport diagram is of DAL. To thos eof us who live hear, there's a big difference.
Love your blog, by the way.

Aviatrix said...

Fixed! You know, I was thinking DFW was more complex than that. The reason I looked for the plate was to comment on the fact that "doesn't DFW have bridges?" but when it didn't I was thinking I had it mixed up. I've never operated out of either.

Anonymous said...

I like the one where a homeless person snuck onto the airfield at STL and then went to sleep in a regional jet. Imagine the crew that found him in the morning.

Anonymous said...

We've got a lot of airports around here, so the mistake is pretty understandable, particularly given Love Field's code: DAL. But, someone wandering onto Love Field's runway would be far more understandable, since there are streets and bars right beside the airport. Most of DFW's operations are quite a long way from the edge of the airport fence. Only a few runways are near public access, and there is not much there for people to wander away from. But, yeah, I'd have gone with aliens, too.

Lord Hutton said...

I seem to recall studying DFW at Uni. I also got abandoned airside at LHR when I was a courier. I got out OK then, but it wouldn't happen now

Anonymous said...

Dunno about AF One, but I once saw a USAF KC-135 (mil version Boeing 707) with a politician and entourage pull into Offutt AFB's Transient apron by Base Ops, discharge the passengers, one of whom was a young lady in jeans and sandals with a backpack who walked out past the gate guard, then stood on the road in front with her thumb up. (Thirty one years ago, not bloody likely now).