[kellyhound]

Las Vegas police arrested a man who they said they found clinging to the wing of an Alaska Airlines jet on the tarmac Saturday afternoon, according to local reports.

Cellphone videos show the man, wearing what looks like khaki-colored sweatpants and a fanny pack, shimmying along the wing as bemused passengers stare out the window.

At one point, he rolls his pant legs up, appears to throw his shoes at the officers, and then tries to climb even higher. A group of officers walks out on the wing, but before they reach him, he loses his grip and falls to the pavement, appearing to strike his head.

Officers and firefighters begin rendering aid. He was arrested. The airline said in a statement that the plane was preparing for takeoff en route to Portland as the man approached it on the tarmac.

Authorities told that mental illness or impairment likely was involved in the incident. The unidentified suspect climbed over a fence to get into the area, they said. It was not immediately clear how serious his injuries were.

[William May]

He's lucky. When I worked at America West Airlines in Phoenix, one night an airplane pulled in, reporting he had struck a deer during the landing. When they looked in the wheel well, there was a guy jammed up in the strut, quite dead, wearing only a rain coat. Apparently he was a mental patient that escaped from an institution south of the airport, clambered his way down into a river wash, then back out of the wash and over the airport fence, and then wound up on the runway as the aircraft was landing. Of course, a death during flight operations is an NTSB investigation, so he caused a lot of trouble for the airline, crew, and everyone involved. Jackass.

[azblue81]

Seemed like a problem that would solve itself.

[houseoftechno]

Hah. The cops skittering out on the wing sure were happy with this ending.