According to ftvnews, November 2nd, a China Airlines flight was aborted on the taxiway after a man ran out of the grass and jumped onto the landing gear, as the plane was about to take off.
13:35, flight CI28 flying from Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) to Palau International Airport (ROR) was preparing to take off. The pilot of Asiana Airlines‘ flight OZ712 spotted a man running out of the grass and mounting the landing gear of China Airlines’ plane.
The Asiana Airlines pilot immediately informed the control tower. The China Airlines pilot aborted the flight and airport police rushed to the aircraft.
The China Airlines pilot turned off the plane’s engines and after the engines powered down, a man dropped from the landing gear compartment and ran across the tarmac.
Police officers chased the man on foot and managed to restrain and arrest him.
The suspect was described as a Belarusian or a Russian and was not carrying any documents. He is suspected of being deaf and mute, as he has not said a word to the police.
At the time of his arrest, he possessed a reflective vest, many gas furnace igniters as well as an unidentifiable hand-drawn map. Fingerprint and iris scans identified no records of entry into Taiwan.
The incident caused many flights to be delayed, as the runway was closed until 14:22.
The plane operating the flight taxied to remote gate 613. 149 passengers were disembarked to follow a full security inspection at the terminal gate D5R. China Airlines later assigned another aircraft to operate the flight, which was rescheduled to depart at 16:20 from the boarding gate D3.