What is missing from the article is the reason they were going on that flight. While certainly a dumb thing to do, I wonder what made her so desperate to be on that plane. Until you have walked in another’s shoes you cannot understand what motivates them.
Regardless of their situation, it was a dumb thing to do. They are lucky one or both of them weren’t sucked into a jet engine, run down or even shot as another poster suggested, this being China after all.
They had to attend a Chinese fire drill?