Woman scales fence to stop a plane in Canada

A woman climbed a barbed wire fence at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Sunday with the intention to stop the plane she thought was carrying her husband, said a Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman.

“Her intent was to stop the aircraft from taking off,” said Sgt. Al LeBlanc. “She jumped the security fence, but she was nowhere near the aircrafts. The airport staff and the Mounted Police responded right away and apprehended her.”

The woman climbed over a 10-foot security fence with angled barb wire around 8:30 a.m. local time, according to Peter Spurway, the airport’s communications vice president.

“She was immediately spotted by the aircraft control tower. One of our folks was on the area and apprehended her. She was in the airfield for 10 minutes. We had a small aircraft in the area and the traffic control tower rerouted the aircraft,” said Spurway.

Spurway said the woman then told police that she believed her husband was on an aircraft, and she was trying to stop him.

“This is a very unusual type of incident. I had never heard of such an incident before in my many years as an officer,” said LeBlanc.
Police took the woman to the hospital for a medical assessment. According to LeBlanc, she suffered minor injuries from scaling the fence.

The 37-year-old woman is a resident of the Fall River, a small suburban community southwest of the airport. LeBlanc said her husband was not a passenger on any plane and criminal charges are unlikely.

The airport is conducting a full review of their security measures, according to Spurway. “This is a very rare occurrence. I have been here over eight years and this has never happened,” he said.