Man Arrested For Climbing Onto Wing Of Plane Taxiing Before Takeoff

Authorities nabbed a man Saturday after he climbed onto the wing of a plane preparing for takeoff from the McCarran International Airport, Nevada.

In a video filmed by a passenger, the erratic man, identified as Alejandro Carlson, 41, was seen sitting and walking and even dramatically spreading his arms at one point while perched on the wing of the Alaska Airlines flight 1367 from Las Vegas to Portland, CNN reported.

Carlson reportedly jumped a perimeter fence in order to gain entry into the airport and ran up to the grounded commercial airline at around 1:30 p.m. ET. He then climbed atop one of the plane’s wings and stayed there for 45 minutes before authorities approached him, officials at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News.

The pilot of the plane had immediately alerted the aircraft control tower upon seeing Carlson run toward the plane. Passengers of the plane were instructed to remain seated as authorities used the flight’s emergency exits to get onto the wing where the man was running wild and nabbed him. Carlson was taken to a medical facility after his arrest.

When police approached him, Carlson slid down the winglet and fell on the tarmac below, Erin Evans, a passenger in the plane, told ABC News. "Our first reaction was, 'Uhhh, who is this guy? Is this a terrorist type of activity? " Evans told the outlet. "It was definitely one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen in my life."

"The flight attendant told me in the 30 years that she’s been a flight attendant nothing like this happened before," Evans continued.

Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Lieutenant Ken Nogle said that Carlson was suspected to be suffering from some sort of mental illness. “Impairment or mental illness is suspected,” Nogle told reporters, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was reported about the airport security breach, but they determined on arrival that the case wasn’t a federal one.

The aircraft was returned to the gate where it underwent a thorough inspection, Alaska Airlines said in a statement. The flight finally took off at 4:48 p.m.