On 6 January, a man identified as Terence Stewart somehow managed to get over the razor wire fence that surrounds the perimeter of the Atlanta’s Hartslfied-Jackson Intl. Airport, local police confirmed. Officials at the airport were investigating how then man was able to get into the secured area of the airport and board a plane.
Atlanta police confirmed the security breech saying the man went over a fence and got on board a parked airliner, which resulted in a face-to-face encounter with airline personnel in the cockpit, the police said. After breaching the secure airport area, officials reported that Stewart got into a Delta truck and “started driving around the airport.”
The man drove to a hangar, then jumped out of the vehicle near a Southwest plane and climbed aboard. That is when he came in contact with a person in the cockpit.
Police were able to put Stewart into handcuffs but he then ran off again, got into another Delta vehicle and drove that one off as well.
“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 said in a statement to Atlanta’s Fox5 news. Stewart is now facing criminal trespassing and auto theft charges.
The airport experienced several similar breaches in 2018 which prompted them to add concertina wire to approximately 20 miles of the security fencing around the airfield.