A rogue raccoon tumbled from a ceiling next to a Spirit Airlines gate at LaGuardia Airport’s Marine Air Terminal Monday morning, sending discount airline flyers and staffers fleeing the raucous vermin.

The altercation was captured in a video that user Ahmad Anonimis posted to

“Dead, just saw a raccoon fall from the ceiling at LaGuardia Airport,” Ahmad tweeted, along with three skull emojis indicating the comic absurdity of what he had witnessed.

The video features a group of people screaming as an alarm system blares and the frightened animal takes cover. The raccoon ran past the terminal’s TSA security checkpoint as a man in a green jacket tried to lock it in a large clear trash can, the video shows.

“This is both the most LaGuardia event and the most Spirit Airlines event. Perfect,” wrote X user Kaitlynn Lwoso.

A Port Authority spokesperson said the raccoon was spotted between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and was summarily captured and released outside the terminal. Agency officials said they were further inspecting the building to prevent future raccoon infiltrations. A spokesperson for Spirit Airlines said the company is “addressing the matter with a professional wildlife management company.”

It remained unclear Tuesday how the raccoon got into the airport — or whether it was trying to catch a flight out of town before Election Day.

By the early 21st century, LaGuardia was known for its dilapidated passenger facilities and leaky ceilings. In 2014, when he was vice president, Joe Biden compared the airport to a “third world country.”

The Port Authority embarked on an ambitious overhaul of LaGuardia over the next decade, completed in 2023, turning it into what Forbes last month called the nation’s “best airport.”

But the renovation did not include an overhaul of the Marine Air Terminal — logistically called Terminal A — a city landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The space has just six departure gates that are now occupied by the low-cost Spirit and Frontier airlines. The terminal is known for its small size, which usually allows for a quick trip through the security checkpoint.