ROMULUS, Mich. (FOX 2) – A driver crashed into the Evans Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport on Friday morning.
The driver went around a concrete barrier and crashed into a door of the terminal. He made it past the security checkpoint before stopping and was taken into custody.
The driver is a 67-year-old man who was driving the wrong way northbound in a southbound lane, going slow in a Cadillac SRX SUV steering around the bollard barriers.
The driver’s mental state is being examined, as he told Tadarial Sturdivant from the Wayne County Airport Authority.
“He made the statement he was there to meet Tom Cruise and to save his dad,” Sturdivant said. “He gained access to gaps in the jersey barrier and drove through those gaps and drove through the door at a slow rate of speed.”
“I can’t speak to his mind at this point in time.”
He drove around the ADA-required barrier gaps, then made a U-turn to drive through the door, he said.
One woman suffered a light injury trying to avoid the vehicle. She refused treatment and proceeded to her flight.
Sturdivant said that gaps in the barriers are due to federal ADA standards.
Charges will be passed on to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, he said. The FBI is also investigating the incident.
Because no charges have been filed yet, his city of residence was not being revealed by Sturdivant.
SUV crashes into Detroit Metro Airport terminal
A driver is in custody after driving into the Evans Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport on Friday morning. The driver crashed through a door and proceeded past security before finally stopping.
Following the crash, police were seen searching the driver’s SUV before using a tow truck to pull it from the building.
A sticker of a skull appeared to cover one of the digits on the driver’s license plate. Sturdivant was unable to give details about it.
A suspect being arrested after crashing into the Evans Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport.
This is the second time a driver has crashed into the airport this year. In January, a man crashed into the McNamara terminal.
Sturdivant claimed this was the first time a crash of this type had happened. He said what differentiated this one, was that the driver was going the wrong way before going around the barricades and made a U-turn before driving through the doors at a slow speed.
The other incident, Sturdivant said, was caused by a driver speeding up and crashing though the other terminal, which made it different.