PHILADELPHIA - A day after a sport utility vehicle crashed through a fence and sped onto a runway, causing an approaching plane to have to pull up quickly, officials said the facility’s perimeter fencing meets federal standards but that police are investigating whether there are ways to make the airport more secure.
Kenneth Richard Mazik is being charged with disrupting operations at the airport and endangering safety there, the US attorney said yesterday. Mazik, of the Philadelphia suburb of Chadds Ford, drove his Jeep through a fence Thursday and sped up and down two runways at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour before being surrounded and apprehended, police said.
The case has no connection to terrorism, investigators said, and the Jeep tested negative for explosives and other hazardous materials. The 24-year-old Mazik also faces driving under the influence and reckless endangerment charges.
The SUV caused pilots and air-traffic controllers to scramble and make last-minute adjustments in the air and on the ground, affecting dozens of aircraft.
One flight was about 20 seconds from touching down when it had to pull up suddenly after a controller spotted the vehicle on the tarmac in foggy conditions, said Don Chapman, president of the Philadelphia local of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
“The controller working the landing runway noticed a target come onto the runway in front of this airplane,’’ Chapman said. “It’s a very close call.’’
In a federal affidavit, authorities said Mazik accelerated through a metal fence as a plane approached the runway and drove faster than 100 miles per hour on the tarmac. Authorities estimated that 75 aircraft had to circle the airport to prepare for landing and 80 were prevented from departing on time.
According to a flurry of radio transmissions, pilots struggled to figure out just what was going on. One on the ground radioed: “I don’t trust this guy. Are you OK if we pull off the runway in case he comes right at us?’’
Airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said this was the first case of a vehicle getting onto the runway at the airport.
ASSOCIATED PRESS