Two passengers were arrested at Cologne Bonn Airport after attempting to run onto the runway to catch their departing Wizz Air flight, The Independent reports.
According to German police, the men — aged 28 and 47 — forced open an emergency exit after discovering that boarding gate B70 for their flight to Bucharest had already closed. The alarm was triggered as they accessed the apron area and sprinted toward the aircraft.
At around 21:33, the Airbus A321 was already taxiing toward the runway. Video shared on social media shows the men running after the aircraft, waving their arms as if signaling the pilots to stop, before being intercepted by an airport worker.
A police spokesperson told Bild that the men face criminal charges for illegal trespassing, and authorities are investigating a possible violation of aviation security regulations.
Passengers run onto the runway trying to catch Wizz Air flight
At Cologne/Bonn Airport, two Romanian men ran onto the runway to try to catch a Wizz Air Airbus A321 flight to Bucharest. They broke through a restricted area, waved at the plane.
Airport staff quickly detained them… pic.twitter.com/byQ3cEZmjC
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 24, 2025
Flight W43262 departed safely and landed in Bucharest with only a 12-minute delay.
An airport spokesperson said the passengers gained “unauthorised access” to the apron via the emergency exit before being detained by staff and handed over to federal police. Cologne Bonn Airport has initiated legal proceedings.
The airport emphasized that aviation security was never compromised and operations continued without disruption.