What's happening at St. George, Utah?

airguy

airguy

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http://www.myksl.com/index/story/sid/21291573

Reading the article, it sounds like maybe somebody got access to a Skywest aircraft without authorization and taxied it? The terminal and some private autos were damaged, all commercial traffic is cancelled, FBI is investigating, nobody is saying exactly what happened. Photos show them crane-lifting a twin engine passenger jet from the parking lot.
 
Sounds like a stolen CRJ to me, with the criminal off'ing himself after it was done.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
Sounds like a stolen CRJ to me, with the criminal off'ing himself after it was done.
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Sounds about right - the photos show the plane with collapsed nosegear in the parking lot as the crane is setting up. If that's what happened, the FBI will certainly be interested in discussing it - but you can bet the TSA won't care...
 
Yeah, spending the evening doing slammers and then deciding to go to the airport can have side effects...
 
St George, eh? Yeah that place get a little loud at night after the bar closes.
 
airguy said:
Sounds about right - the photos show the plane with collapsed nosegear in the parking lot as the crane is setting up. If that's what happened, the FBI will certainly be interested in discussing it - but you can bet the TSA won't care...
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The TSA will be interested to the extent that they can cover their asses.
 
"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.......
...... It was not immediately known whether Hedglin had any experience as a pilot."

Hmmmm.....sounds like a SkyWest pilot. :dunno:
 
Threefingeredjack said:
"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.......
...... It was not immediately known whether Hedglin had any experience as a pilot."

Hmmmm.....sounds like a SkyWest pilot. :dunno:
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There's only one person in the FAA database with that name, living in Colorado Springs which would jive with the article, and he's an ATP.
 
More on this now.

SALT LAKE CITY — A SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in connected with a Colorado murder attempted to steal a passenger plane from a small southern Utah airport then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday.

Brian Hedglin, 40, scaled a razor wire fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday then boarded the 50-passenger SkyWest jet while the airport was closed, St. George city spokesman Marc Mortenson said.

Mortenson said the man used a rug to scale the airport's security fence in the middle of the night, drove the plane past a terminal building, clipping the wing, then crashed into cars in an airport parking lot. The plane never left the ground.

A police officer making rounds found the plane idling, boarded it and found Hedglin dead with a gunshot wound to his head, Mortenson said.

Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday by police doing a welfare check at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide.
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http://www.denverpost.com/breakingn...rado-murder-suspect-attempts-steal-plane-from
 
More updates - http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/justice/utah-plane-incident/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Mortenson said the man used a rug to scale the airport's security fence in the middle of the night, drove the plane past a terminal building, clipping the wing, then crashed into cars in an airport parking lot.
​

So much for the whole airport security initiative, eh? Turns out anybody with a $2 throw rug can easily get past it. This guy was IDENTIFIED and WANTED, the airline was told about him, and he still managed to get in and get the CRJ running. Fabulous.
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Guess the dude couldn't taxi the plane without the ground handlers there to guide him. ;)
 
Well what I'm worried about is the knee-jerk reaction by DHS/TSA over this...... :mad2:

I wonder what new rules they will think of.

The ABC Nightly News said that commerical aircraft are less secure then cars because they don't have keys. Also that pilots are not required to input a code to access the controls. :rolleyes2:
 
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ARFlyer said:
Well what I'm worried about is the knee-jerk reaction by DHS/TSA over this...... :mad2:

I wonder what new rules they will think of.

The ABC Nightly News said that commerical aircraft are less secure then cars because they don't have keys. Also that pilots are not required to input a code to access the controls. :rolleyes2:
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This thing is gonna get REAL ugly in regards to airport security.:yesnod::sad::sad:
 
Well, let's add rugs to the list of things you can't take through a security checkpoint.
 
chucky said:
Well, let's add rugs to the list of things you can't take through a security checkpoint.
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I'm picturing the x-ray bins with piles of toupee's next to the shoes, wallets and laptops...
 
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slacktide said:
I'm picturing the x-ray bins with piles of toupee's next to the shoes, wallets and laptops...
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Well I wonder what they will do against ga? I bet they will use this to bring back the mandatory ID and escorting to your aircraft.
 
Check out the Photos from this article, which show the aircraft wing damage. Skywest's corporate Headquarters is in St. George. Who knows how this might have ended had he got airborne....

http://www.deseretnews.com/m/article/865559149

Pictures are behind the Photos tab, top right.
 
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Morons like this guy and the person that crashed his plane into the irs building in austin, tx are the reason why ga and commercial flying is getting more restrictive and a pain in the ass every passing day
 
cirrusmx said:
Morons like this guy and the person that crashed his plane into the irs building in austin, tx are the reason why ga and commercial flying is getting more restrictive and a pain in the ass every passing day
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The morons who overreact deserve credit, too.
 
chucky said:
The morons who overreact deserve credit, too.
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Yeah, and count the media in too. I watch some idiot bemoan that any one could enter a jet and start it up because they didn't need keys. :mad2:

Yeah, and anyone off the street knows you need to watch until N1 hits the magic number before moving the condition lever....... :yesnod:
 
My question: why didn't he take off? Obviously this guy had enough experience to do it if he wanted to.

My wild ass guess theory is that he was ****ed off at Skywest (in addition to being on the run for murder) and wanted to destroy their property. He decided to do it on the ground with less collateral damage vs from the air where the collateral damage could have been much greater. Or he could have just been loaded with who knows what substance. Who really knows what was going through this moron's head..
 
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jjflys said:
My question: why didn't he take off? Obviously this guy had enough experience to do it if he wanted to.
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Because he sheared off half of the left wing trying to taxi away from the gate.

--Carlos V.
 
Unbeliever said:
Because he sheared off half of the left wing trying to taxi away from the gate.

--Carlos V.
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True- so he was probably on something. It's hard to believe an ATP couldn't figure out how to taxi if they were sober, although its not every day you try to back out without a tug. :lol:
 
Is it possible for a single pilot to fly that aircraft?
 
jjflys said:
My question: why didn't he take off? Obviously this guy had enough experience to do it if he wanted to.

My wild ass guess theory is that he was ****ed off at Skywest (in addition to being on the run for murder) and wanted to destroy their property. He decided to do it on the ground with less collateral damage vs from the air where the collateral damage could have been much greater. Or he could have just been loaded with who knows what substance. Who really knows what was going through this moron's head..
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No doubt, I think he was 100% set up to do a FedEx 705/Auburn Calloway type deal.
 
ARFlyer said:
Well what I'm worried about is the knee-jerk reaction by DHS/TSA over this...... :mad2:

I wonder what new rules they will think of.

The ABC Nightly News said that commerical aircraft are less secure then cars because they don't have keys. Also that pilots are not required to input a code to access the controls. :rolleyes2:
Click to expand...
Think prop locks.
 
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