Dallas police chase with carjacking suspect ends beside Love Field runway


03:46 PM CDT on Thursday, August 19, 2010


From Staff Reports

A carjacking suspect was arrested beside a runway at Dallas Love Field this afternoon after an hourlong slow-speed chase that wound through Dallas streets.
The chase ended shortly after 3 p.m. when Dallas squad cars surrounded and rammed the stolen gray pickup.
As TV helicopters circled the airport, officers drew their guns before yanking the shirtless man from the vehicle and handcuffing him.
The chase began about 2 p.m. after a carjacking in North Dallas. Officers patiently followed the pickup as it snaked through the city.
But when the driver crashed through a fence and onto a Love Field runway, police quickly converged on him and ended the pursuit.
The airport stopped flights from landing after the man crashed through the gate.


Just happened and I am sure you will be able to find a video of it shortly. I turned on the TV just in time to see a truck being followed by Dallas PD down a taxiway, and when he tried to make it onto the runway the cops spun him out and put an end to it. He busted through a chainlink fence and that is how he made it onto airport property.

Back in '03, there was a high-speed chase in Boise that ended up at the airport. The suspects (a married couple) ended up getting into a shoot-out with the cops about 100' from the tail of our airplane (SKYW Barbie Jet). Anyway, they were both fatally wounded. The crime tape ran underneath the tailcone, but I could still access the hellhole hatch for my walk-around. It was just weird to get a call in the hotel lobby from dispatch asking us to get to the airport as quickly as possible. We had to inspect the plane for possible bullet holes. Luckily none were found and we ended up moving the plane to another gate. Of course, we also had a Fed in the jumpseat to add to the fun. It was one of those weird experiences. Other than the dead woman on the tarmac with the blue tarp on her, the other thing that I remember is their minivan with flat tires and one of the airport gates on top of it (big tire and everything). Apparently they busted through and the gate flipped up and landed on top of the van. They continued the chase down a taxiway with that thing on top of the car. As a side note, they ended up finding some bullet holes on the vertical stabilizer of a Northwest Airlines Airbus.

Thought I'd share since this story reminded me of my own.

In a prior life I was on a runway safety committee at DFW. They had a runway incursion a few years back. There was a road rage incident on the highway south of DFW. One of the cars entered DFW and went around East Airfield Dr. It ends a bit past the old Delta hanger but they keep going. Car bogged down after going through the fence but the occupants kept going. One made it across 17C and 17R to Terminal C. Now if you look at the AOA fence at DFW, it has some heavy cable along the bottom.

I saw the 'chase' on TV. He!!, SWA taxies faster than that truck was going

To tag onto the airport chase story list;

Back in 1989 at MCAS El Toro, some guy led a large chase right through the security fence and onto the ramp area. For what seemed to be at least 4-5 minutes he managed to evade capture from a large number of pursuing vehicles.

I had a very close front row seat for the live action as he drove back and forth through parked and taxing fighters, the hot refuel pits and even a hanger. It seemed like every base security and airport vehicle was in on the chase. He did a great job at evasion, even though it was a very poor choice in escape routing.

After some extremely dangerous moves on his part they sandwiched him. No gun fire though - darn that gear down safety lock feature.

SP

Were you there 4 July 1986, when the LCPL stole an A4 ?


Just looked the guy up, looks like he didn't pursue a flying career:

Certificates

1 of 1


DOI: 5/12/2010
Certificate: PRIVATE PILOT
Rating(s):
PRIVATE PILOT
GLIDER

Tony:

The LCpl already had his license when he took the A-4 for the joyride (which, by the way, was at 0200 at night, if memory serves).

Pretty sure he was a plane captain, and therefore familiar with the jet. He was trying to get an officer slot/pilot slot in the Marines, but could not pass the color vision test. He already held some kind of record (or distance achievement) in sailplanes.

So to prove he was worthy, he stole the A-4 and flew patterns for a half an hour or so until he landed and taxied in. (Supposedly arrested in the chocks after shutting down). Actually, pretty impressive he could solo the Skyhawk (and land it in one piece) at night, with no prior experience in it!

A buddy of mine was in that squadron, and thankful he wasn't the duty officer that night!

Well, in the small world department, I was in a similar program at the same time LCPL Foote was. I started working on my PPL on the base at NZJ in April 1986, and got a tour of the F18 (fairly new then) flight sim over by the tower (MAG-11 area, if I recall). I didn't really care what I flew, but I knew the F4 was going out, so didn't want that.

I took the Navy aptitude test, I failed the eye test with 20/25 in the left eye. Applied for a waiver. The result was, "aeronautically qualified for SNA, medically qualified for SNFO". Or, I could go to the Navy with up to 20/40. Or BN on A6, back seat F4, or rear seat EA6B.

I never met Foote, nor did I hear the A4 fly over that night. Passed my private check ride on 29 Nov 86.

No, I did not enter AOCS until May 87 and was only at NZJ from May 89-Nov 89 at VMFAT-101, so I missed that one. Of course we all heard about it. Having spent several years flying the A-4, I too must agree that it was an impressive flight.

SP