4 million view clip of woman's flight meltdown

It is an emotional display that has struck a chord with airline passengers everywhere: more than 4 million people worldwide have gone online to see a middle-aged woman's meltdown over missing a Cathay Pacific flight out of Hong Kong.

News of the clip on YouTube, showing the unidentified woman screaming and throwing herself to ground after arriving at the departure gate at Chek Lap Kok too late to board a San Francisco-bound flight, first appeared in the Sunday Morning Post last week.

Some 56,000 people had viewed the three-minute clip before the newspaper went to press.

However, by last night, after newspapers and TV stations around the world picked up the story, it had been watched by 4.4 million people - 400,000 more than the total number of passengers to pass through Hong Kong International Airport in January.

The staggering viewing figures clocked up in just six days have put the clip, apparently filmed with a mobile phone camera by a member of ground staff, on course to become one of the 100 most viewed clips of all time on YouTube.

The video was recorded on February 4 when the woman and two male travelling companions arrived at 5.05pm at the boarding gate for flight CX782 to San Francisco - the time of the plane's scheduled departure.

When the smartly dressed woman discovers the group's baggage has been offloaded, she first tries to barge her way past a security guard to get to the air bridge, then throws herself screaming onto the floor in front of the boarding gate.