Talk about a potentially dangerous incident averted. A SkyWest pilot suspected of killing his girlfriend hopped the gate at the St. George Municipal Airport in southwestern Utah last night, and stole a SkyWest CRJ-200:
[40 year old Brian] Hedglin backed the aircraft away from the jet bridge, Mortensen said, then began to pull it forward. The jet’s left wing hit the jet bridge, and when Hedglin turned to head east, he scraped the same wing along the terminal building.
Mortensen said the man then drove the jet through a security fence, over some landscaping, before finally stopping after hitting multiple cars in the public parking lot.
[...]
SkyWest officials opened the plane, Mortensen said, and police officers discovered Hedglin had shot himself and was deceased.
Regional jets aren't exactly small aircraft, mind you.
A CRJ-200, similar to the one mentioned in the story. Photo taken by me at the Mobile Regional Airport in Mobile, AL.
ABC News passes along "reassuring" news from the FBI about the situation:
"The FBI is on scene at St. George Airport, along with St. George PD and TSA. We are conducting a joint investigation. We are still gathering facts, but it is important to note there is no ongoing public safety issue and the scene is under the control of law enforcement," the FBI in Salt Lake City said in a statement earlier today.
Also noticeable in the ABC News story is that SkyWest was quick to cover up the plane's livery (color scheme and logos), which is a common practice in crashes and incidents so that the public doesn't tie the airline's brand to crashes.
Homeland Security and the TSA will have to look into how their security procedures failed (quelle surprise!), and a man was able to practically walk away with a commercial regional jet. Once the GOP Congress gets a hold of this, they're going to latch on and not let go. One can only assume that by the end of this upcoming Fox Entertainment cycle, Brian Hedglin will turn into a group of terrorists commissioned by Obama himself.