British pair held at gunpoint for chasing flight down runway

A father and son were arrested by armed police after breaking an airport’s emergency exit door to catch a flight they missed while they drank at the bar.

Antonino Loi, 65, and Tony Loi, 40, were held at gunpoint for chasing a plane bound for London Stanstead down the runway at Cagliari airport, Sardinia on Tuesday.

They have been fined £2000 for the damage caused when they forced the door open, causing an alarm to go off, the Sun reports.

Tony Loi, who lives in London, said he planned to challenge the fine and branded the situation ‘ridiculous and stupid’.

He said: ‘We usually board at a gate on the first floor so that’s where we were sitting but they boarded from below.

‘They said they called us but neither of us heard anything on the tannoy.

‘My dad saw an easyJet plane outside and then saw that boarding was shut.

‘I ran downstairs towards the plane, I thought the stairs to the plane were still there, so I basically exited a door that put an alarm off.’

Mr Loi insisted he and his dad weren’t ‘drunk’ or ‘criminals’ and just wanted to catch the plane when they saw police chasing them.

He said: ‘To be honest, I actually thought the police officer was going to radio the plane and tell them to make an exception and let us off but, it was the opposite, a different case altogether.’

Following the fiasco, the pair were taken to a small room for an hour where they were told they would be fined.

Airport police officer Mimmo Bari told the publication the pair looked like a ‘comedy scene’ as they wheeled their suitcases along the tarmac, but said if it had been in a stricter country ‘they ran the risk of being shot.’

In a statement easyJet said: ‘We can confirm that two passengers were not allowed to travel on flight EZY3204 from Cagliari to London Stansted having arrived late to the gate.

‘They were subsequently arrested by the police as a result of behaving disruptively. The safety and wellbeing of passengers, crew and ground staff is always our priority.

‘Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour.’