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A man was arrested on Monday at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) in Arizona for jumping the fence and running onto the tarmac.
34-year-old Jamie Jesus Mendoza abandoned his car on Old Tower Road, climbed an airport perimeter fence, then ran onto multiple taxiways and crossed two active runways, according to 12News. Several pilots alerted ATC, and a man identified as Mendoza was seen running toward a taxiing American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 (Flight AA 1422) before dropping to his knees within 20 feet of the aircraft. All North Runway operations were stopped, according to AeroXplorer.
"He's running towards our aircraft right now," said one pilot. "He's on his knees begging us to do something."
The police said that when trying to detain Mendoza, he ran onto runway 7L and the officers were concerned about injuries. The incident lasted around 10 to 15 minutes, and he was taken into custody at approximately 6 a.m. Police later found a firearm on the passenger seat while searching his car. As Mendoza is a convicted felon, he is not allowed to possess a gun and was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm as well as criminal trespassing. Mendoza was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation and is now being held at the Watkins jail on a $5,000 bond.
"The safety and security of our passengers and crew is our top priority," said an American Airlines spokesperson. "We are working closely with local law enforcement and the TSA as they investigate this security breach. We commend our flight crew for their quick actions in maintaining a safe environment."
PHX is under heavy scrutiny for the breach, as it is the second one in a month, according to Arizona's Family. In late January, Qais Ahmad Tillawi was able to make his way through TSA security and board a flight to Paris without a valid boarding pass. It was only noticed after he would not take a seat and the crew members checked his name against the list of passengers. Police had to be called to remove him from the aircraft.
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Karl de la Guerra, an international security consultant who has worked in security management at Sky Harbor, has stated that incidents like this are more common than expected and that he does not think that PHX has a security problem.
"I'm not saying that complacency was necessarily the case here, but I have seen it myself personally, where complacency will set in," said De la Guerra. "Printing out the tickets, pushing them on, the individual comes up to the security checkpoint, okay, they have a ticket, glance, glance, pass it through, send them on their way."
"The safety and security of airport customers and employees is always our top priority," said Monica Hernandez, a spokesperson for PHX. "While specific airport security procedures are not released, we work closely with our law enforcement partners and other pertinent stakeholders to employ multiple layers of security throughout our airport system."