On 22 May 2011, at around 4.30pm a man approached a member of the
Garda Síochána in
Cork City Centre who was sitting in his traffic corp jeep. The man got into the vehicle began to beat up the Garda, produced a knife, before slashing his face, the Garda then jumped from his jeep. The man then
hijacked the Garda's traffic corps jeep before, hitting
vehicles en route to Cork Airport while Gardaí gave chase. At around 4.50pm the man arrived at Cork Airport, rammed through the perimeter fence near the Cargo terminal (Gate 19), before abandoning the Garda jeep after it broke down, he then again produced a knife, and again hijacked a vehicle which belonged to the
Airport Fire Service, by this time
Air Traffic Control had suspended all operations. The man began to drive
erratically coming into close contact with a
Thomas Cook flight driving underneath the aircraft at high speed, the incident was captured on
YouTube by a passenger waiting to board a flight.
[24] The man proceeded to
ram several Garda and airport vehicles, before attempting to ram an
Aer Lingus aircraft bound for Amsterdam. The man's vehicle
stalled which prevented him from ramming the Aer Lingus jet, the jeep halted just feet from the
Airbus A320-200 aircraft, where members of the Armed Gardaí subdued the man by
tasering him, during the chase in the airport another Garda was injured and transported to hospital after his car was rammed by the
assailant. Flights where resumed after the man was removed from airport property and the perimeter secured.