Very Interesting Read.
https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2018/09/ ... 365792002/
Orlando Melbourne airport: FIT student pilot charged with attempting to steal plane
J.D. Gallop, Rick Neale and Malcolm Denemark, Florida Today
The 22-year-old Florida Institute of Technology student pilot suspected of jumping a fence at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport and boarding a vacant American Airlines Airbus has been charged with a criminal attempt to steal an airplane.
Law enforcement authorities also booked the student, identified by airport spokeswoman Lori Booker as Nishal Sankat, for a visa violation and criminal trespassing.
Melbourne Police Chief David Gillespie said Thursday evening Sankat continues to be interviewed about his motives. While terrorism has not been ruled out, he said, there is currently no evidence to suggest he was attempting to carry out a terrorist attack.
"He was not armed at the time," he said during an evening news conference at the airport.
The 5 p.m. press conference at Orlando Melbourne International Airport. (Photo: Malcolm Denemark/FLORIDA TODAY)
Earlier Thursday, several FBI agents were escorted to the Airbus by police while other federal agents were spotted in a Melbourne apartment complex.
FBI agents and two white Melbourne Police CSI vans parked alongside a row of garages on Tucan Way within the Cypress Springs neighborhood. This townhouse complex — where Sankat has an address — is off Eber Boulevard, west of Babcock Street.
"There were no explosive devices and no weapons that were confiscated from his (Tucan Way) residence,” Gillespie said.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force — which includes the FBI in a leading role— continues investigating the early morning incident, which happened near the STS Mod Center aircraft hangar.
The incident at the Melbourne airport was the latest security compromise to take place nationally.
In June, a 19-year-old managed to scale a security fence at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and climb on the wing of a passenger jet. The teen had stripped to his underwear before officers managed to take him into custody.
The most serious breach happened Aug. 11 when authorities said a Horizon Air employee commandeered a Bombardier Q400 turboprop plane at Seattle’s airport and crashed it into a nearby island.
'The breach'Sankat pulled up to the airport dropoff point, left his red Toyota running and jumped over a security gate and then entered the plane about 2 a.m., airport authorities reported.
He managed to then get to the Airbus and board it.
Orlando Melbourne International Airport was on lockdown Sept. 20, 2018, after a security breach. Shown is the Melbourne Police Department's crime scene van and a suspect's car. (Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)
“Our employee was in the aircraft and immediately questioned him, immediately escorted him out of the airplane, and was taking him over to our main hangar facility to call the police and to deal with it. And the individual took off running," STS Aviation Group President Mark Smith said.
"The original employee plus our shift manager jumped in one of our golf carts and impeded his process from getting back to the airplane — he was heading back to the airplane," Smith said.
Booker said the Melbourne Airport Police Department responded within 2 minutes. Melbourne Airport police quickly blocked incoming traffic and placed the complex on a lockdown. Police also called for the bomb squad to check the Toyota, which was still running.
“There was nothing to indicate that he could have made it further," said Chief Reneé Purden of the Melbourne Airport Police Department. "Our personnel did exactly what they were supposed to do.”
Orlando Melbourne International Airport was on lockdown Sept. 20, 2018, after a security breach. Shown is the Melbourne Police Department's crime scene van.
The StudentThe suspect is a part-time Florida Tech student from Trinidad and Tobago who is studying aviation management, and he has completed some flight training, said Adam Lowenstein, a university spokesman.
The senior, who had been attending the school since 2014, planned to graduate in May 2019, according to the university.
Sankat holds dual citizenship of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, Gillespie said. He had recently been in the United States, but left after it expired. He then came back into the country using his Canadian passport, he said. Sankat has a Florida driver's license, Booker reported.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration Sankat received his commercial pilot’s certification in January and was qualified to fly multi-engine aircraft and was instrument rated.
Shown is Nishal Sankat, a Florida Tech student charged with trying to steal a plane from Orlando Melbourne International Airport on Sept. 20, 2018. (Photo: JD GALLOP/FLORIDA TODAY)
A commercial pilot certificate allows a person to fly for hire in such areas as crop-dusting or banner towing, but it is not the certification needed to fly passenger jets. It does indicate a higher level aviation knowledge than a private pilot. To receive a commercial pilot certificate, a person needs to have completed at least 250 hours of flight time.
"Law enforcement is continuing its investigation. University officials will collaborate with authorities to further review this matter. No additional information is available at this time," Lowenstein wrote in a media statement.
Law enforcement authorities are now trying to determine a motive and whether it was an isolated incident, Booker said. An arrest affidavit has not yet been made public.
"The FBI is working with our state and local task force members in the ongoing investigation," said Andrea Aprea, an FBI spokeswoman in Tampa.
In the Cypress Springs complex, resident Jasper Locke returned home about 3:30 p.m. after running errands when he was approached by three agents.
"They caught me getting out of my truck and started asking me all these questions. I said, 'Who are you?' They told me they were the FBI," Locke said.
"They showed me their credentials, showed me his picture, asked me if I had seen him. I sit out here, and I see everybody coming and going. But I didn't know which apartment this guy was from," he said, seated in a wicker chair outside his front door.
Cypress Springs resident Christiane Martins said she spotted people standing on Sankat's street about 6:45 a.m. Thursday while she was walking her dog, and she saw FBI employees inside the complex in the afternoon. She said she had never seen Sankat.
Technician 'saw a shadow'President Donald Trump held rallies inside the aircraft hangar in September 2016 and February 2017. STS Aviation Group bought the facility in June 2017, then opened for business last October, Smith said.
The Airbus — large enough to hold up to 200 passengers — was out of service and blocked in by aircraft chocks to prevent movement, airport officials reported.
Airport officials said the avionics technician working in the galley of the plane saw a shadow.
"He turned around and said, 'Who are you? Show me your badge,' " Booker said.
The unnamed technician, one of four people dubbed as heroes, grabbed the student and with help from another technician, led the student off the plane.
Booker said one of the men held the student to the ground while the other made a call to Melbourne Airport Police. The student pilot then broke free and ran along the airfield before he was taken into custody by two police officers.
More: Minutes after he boarded, airport intruder was tackled in the cockpit
The airport was placed on a lockdown that lasted until about 7 a.m. All flights at the airport, which handles about 500,000 passengers a year, were suspended for about five hours. Two flights from the airport were delayed.
A car was towed by Lee’s Towing with Melbourne CSI vans in front of and behind it at about 7:15 a.m. A robot used by police searched the vehicle before it was removed from the airport.
How it all beganThe incident unfolded with Melbourne police tweeting early Thursday that Orlando Melbourne International Airport was temporarily closed due to "police activity."
Melbourne resident Manan Karia approached the airport about 5 a.m. on NASA Boulevard to try to catch a 6 a.m. Delta flight to Atlanta en route to Austin, Texas.
"I drove by Keiser (University) and Sears and saw a bunch of cars in both parking lots, which I thought was weird," Karia said. "I get to the airport and there is a line about five cars deep, and a police officer has the entrance blocked with his car, and lights are flashing. You could see more police cars with lights flashing around the airport.
"I finally get up to the officer — and he proceeds to tell me the airport is shut down and asks if I’m an employee or a passenger. I let him know I’m a passenger, and he tells me to go park at the Keiser parking lot. That’s all the info they provided.
"I was just scouring Twitter and the internet trying to get more after that."
Karia and a group of fellow passengers drove from the Keiser University parking lot shortly after 7 a.m., then entered the airport.
"It was the longest security line I can remember seeing in Melbourne," Karia said.
In the spotlightBooker said security training helped prepare the officers and the staff for their response to the breach.
She said the quick thinking and training of the airport workers stopped Sankat before he could go further.
Booker said she couldn't discuss specific security protocols, but the airport would be reviewing the measures in place.
Late Thursday afternoon, Melbourne police CSI vans and law enforcement vehicles parked near an American Airlines jet on the tarmac outside the STS Mod Center, and personnel entered the plane using a wheeled stairway. Television news vans congregated in the vicinity, just outside the airport’s restricted area behind Circles of Care Harbor Pines.
Greg Donovan, the executive director of the airport, talked to the maintenance workers who confronted the man.
"I want you to know how very grateful we are for your heroic actions and quick thinking," Donovan told the men, according to Booker.
Contributing: Jennifer Sangalang, Tyler Vazquez, FLORIDA TODAY
