Man accused of jumping fence, stealing a truck and getting onboard plane at Atlanta airport
Incident took place at Hartfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest facility
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An alleged trespasser was arrested after allegedly scaling a razorwire fence at Atlanta’s international airport before stealing a Delta pickup truck and getting onboard a plane.
An investigation is now underway to find out how Terrence Stewart accessed the secure area of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest airport, on 6 January.
Authorities say that once the suspect got over the fence, he took the pickup truck at around 3am and went into a Southwest Airlines maintenance hanger where he walked up the steps into an aircraft.
The suspect then allegedly got into the plane’s cockpit and spoke to a Southwest employee, before exiting and allegedly stealing a second pickup truck that was idling nearby.
Employees then followed the suspect around the airport until he was stopped by the north cargo area.
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Mr Stewart was taken to Clayton County Jail and charged with two counts of motor vehicle theft and one count of criminal trespass.
“Airport employees followed protocol as directed and challenged the suspect to present his credentials, reported him to 911, maintained a safe distance while keeping him in sight, and provided information to Atlanta police officers responding to the incident,” a Hartsfield-Jackson spokesperson told FOX 5.
It is not the first time that trespassers have breached security at the airport, with two incidents happening in 2018 alone, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In one of those incidents, a man wearing only his underwear got onto an active taxiway and ran towards a plane, temporarily halting some flights.
In response, the airport installed around 20 miles of coiled razor wire around perimeter security fencing.