GATWICK Airport suffered a major security scare when a maniac snuck into security and tried to get on a plane – before being tackled by hero passengers.

William Jonzi, 24, followed a paying customer through the e-gates at the major international airport before attempting to jump on a flight with no documents last Wednesday morning.

The man was tackled to the floor when he “went berserk” and began shouting while trying to board the TUI jet to Spanish holiday hotspot Palma de Mallorca at 6am.

Jonzi snuck past cops by getting through the south terminal’s automatic security gates with another passenger, who was unknowingly “tailgated”.

He was screened in security and cleared to continue airside.

Jonzi then made his way to Gate 23, where the plane, operated by Ascend Airways on TUI’s behalf, was about to depart.

Jimmy McBride, who was on the flight to Spain, told The Sun he grabbed Jonzi and forced him to the ground in front of terrified children and families after spotting him acting erratically.

The father, of Sussex, told The Sun he felt “something was off” as Jonzi charged towards the 6am flight while shouting “I’ve got to get on the plane”.

He said: “I grabbed him as he got two feet on the plane. He was trying to get on and get towards the passengers.

“He tried to come on with another woman and pretended her pram was his.

“The cabin crew had told him he wasn’t coming on the flight. When he tried to get on, they told him, ‘Sir, we’ve told you, you can’t come on.’

“I caught him and got him to the ground, but the crew thought it was a fight and told me to get off him, as if I was beating him up for no reason.”

The plane’s crew are said to have held Jonzi at the front of the aircraft until the police arrived.

Fellow passenger Dayna White, 29, was confronted by Jonzi as he tried to board the flight alongside her mother Andrea.

The mum, who was looking forward to a 10-night family holiday, said: “It was a bit concerning.

“It’s my first holiday with my child, so it wasn’t a good experience.

“We’re going to put a complaint in. He had been loitering around, so it’s hardly as if it was a shock that he’d try to get on that plane.”

The flight eventually took off at 8.20am – two hours and 20 minutes later than scheduled.

Jonzi, of Croydon, South London, appeared at Crawley magistrates’ court last Thursday and pleaded guilty to entering the protected security area of an airport without permission.

He was fined £120 and ordered to pay £89 in costs and surcharges.

Last year, we revealed how jobless Craig Sturt jetted to New York on a British Airways flight following a staggering series of blunders.

A week later, a Brit man managed to sneak onto a Norwegian Air flight in a bid to reach Danish capital Copenhagen undetected.

Tui sources said the plane was operated by another carrier, which was working with the police.

Gatwick Airport declined to comment.