WASHINGTON (AP) – In a highly unusual security breach last month at the air base that operates Air Force One’s presidential aircraft, an apparently aimless intruder went undetected for several hours and got in and out of a plane on the flight line before of its peculiar the helmet denounced it.
He was wearing what an Air Force investigative report released on Thursday described as “a red or pink cap that partially covered his ears and had distinct balls at the top that looked a bit like mouse ears.”
An airman in the Andrews Joint Base operations office, located in Maryland, just outside Washington, saw the man on the flight line and suspected, partly because of his helmet, and called security. Officials said he never approached Air Force One.
“To be honest, I’m just being honest, we had no idea that we had an unauthorized civilian at the base. He could have wandered much longer if it weren’t for that particular aviator who found out that he doesn’t quite fit, ”said Sami Said, the Air Force inspector general who informed reporters about his findings.
The February 4 invasion was reported on the same day by the Air Force, which opened an internal investigation to determine how it happened and what could be done to minimize the chances of a repeat. The investigation found three major security breaches, beginning with “human error” by a security guard at the gate who allowed the man to drive to the base, although he had no credentials to authorize his access. Hours later, the man walked undetected to the flight line, sliding over a fence designed to restrict entry. And finally, he got in and out of a parked plane without being challenged, although he was not wearing a mandatory badge that authorized access to the restricted area.
On the day of the incident, authorities said the intruder was turned over to local authorities because there was at least one pending arrest warrant. His name has not been released. The inspector general’s report said he had “an extensive history of detentions”, but other details were withheld.
“Security forces have never seen him pass from the open gate to the aircraft,” said Said, the inspector general. In addition to the strange hat, the intruder’s clothes – dark trousers and jacket and black high-top sneakers – could have made him look like a contractor, Said said, although he should have been questioned anyway, not least because he didn’t have a badge. visible authorizing your presence.
“The good news is that, once alerted, security forces arrested him very quickly – the minute he got off the plane,” he said.
Said said the modified Boeing 747 that serves as Air Force One for presidential travel has never been at risk and that it is kept behind more layers of protection at Andrews. “This area is exceptionally safe,” he said.
Unencumbered, the unarmed intruder boarded a C-40, a transport jet used primarily by members of the Cabinet, Congress, and combatant military commanders. He did no damage and the Air Force investigation report, which was heavily censored by the Air Force before it was released on Thursday, concluded that it had no plans to cause damage to Air Force personnel or equipment. Its purpose could not be definitively determined.
“The evidence supports the conclusion that (blank) he was simply wandering around the base and did not enter the base to find anyone,” said the report. “During the interrogation, (blank) he said he came to the base because he wanted to see planes.”
After driving through Virginia Gate at Andrews, the man drove to the exchange office, where images from the surveillance camera showed that he spent about an hour before getting back in the car. His whereabouts for the next four hours could not be determined. The passengers at the 89th Air Wing passenger terminal remembered him entering the terminal, and then he slipped unnoticed into the flight line through an 18-inch gap in a security fence gate that was not fully closed due to a “malfunction”.
He entered the C-40 aircraft, which was opened to facilitate a communications training session. Two crew members were on board. The intruder went to the back of the plane and left without being challenged after a few minutes. As he walked back to the security gate on the flight line, he was stopped and arrested.
Said said that, as far as he knew, Andrews had never experienced such a lapse in security.