At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport a woman who was driving her car with a child rammed through a gate at the airport and ended up on a runway. The incident occurred Thursday night and Sgt. Trent Crump of the Phoenix Police Department said to Fox News that the woman rammed through the gate and went onto the runway at around 10:00 p.m. where she was stopped by police officers.
NBC News reported that Phoenix police at Sky Harbor Airport chased the driver and forced her car to stop.
Neither the driver or the child were hurt in the incident but Crump said in a release to NBC News that the woman driving showed signs of "impairment." Flight operations at the airport were ceased for about 15 minutes after incident occurred.
NBC News reported that the airport has recently spent $10 million to upgrade its security around the gates after a prior incident. Reportedly in 2005 a man crashed a pickup truck through the gate and also ran on the runway, causing havoc and passing a few airplanes that were on the runway.
Two teens were also caught driving their car on the runway in 2003. NBC News reported that they crashed through a fence and went onto the runway.
The communications department at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport declined to comment on the incident but The Daily Mail reported that they said that operations returned to normal shortly after the incident occurred.
The Daily Mail reported that Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport is the ninth busiest airport in the U.S. with 40,591,948 passengers passing through last year. "On a daily basis the airport handles about 1,266 planes along and more than 828 tons of cargo," reported The Daily Mail.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
