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Skywest pilot allegedly commits suicide inside airplane

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Skywest pilot allegedly commits suicide inside airplane

Old 17th Jul 2012, 18:56
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Skywest pilot allegedly commits suicide inside airplane

Brian Joseph Hedglin Stole SkyWest Airplane in Utah

SkyWest Airlines crews at their home base of St. George, Utah, arrived at work this morning to find one of their Delta Connection-liveried Bombardier CRJ-700 CRJ-200 jets nosed into a ditch. The airport’s lone terminal also suffered some damage along with several private cars in the parking lot.



Details remain very sketchy. What we do know is the incident occurred around 3 am local time, according to a KSL report. Initially there were no reports of injuries, but later the possibility of one seriously injured person was raised.



The airport was closed completely until late Tuesday morning as the FBI and local police investigated. Roads surrounding the airport were also closed. Several flights were cancelled, some were being operated out Cedar City Municipal Airport about 70 miles north of St. George, while some were being replaced by bus service.


No one is saying who or what was responsible for the damage, nor the nature of the damage. The plane in the ditch was first revealed through a reader-submitted cellphone photo posted on KSL.com.



More recent pictures showed the plane being lifted by crane from an area that appeared to be a public parking area, and the plane’s left wing had obviously contacted some parked cars. Presumably the damage to the terminal could have also been caused by the plane hitting it.


So what happened? In the photos we’ve seen so far, the plane did not appear to have a tug or a towbar attached to it, which could indicate that the plane’s engines were actually powered up and it was moving on its own.



It is possible that a group of people could have pushed it by hand, but to push a larger CRJ any considerable distance would have required a pretty large group.


The plane was still in one piece, but there was no way of telling how severe the damage without getting a closer view of the fuselage. All of the plane’s Delta branding, including the tail and the fuselage titles, are now covered in white plastic.


Based on the fact that the FBI and TSA were investigating, it seems that this was not an accident caused by a SkyWest employee in the course of his job.


Got any details? Email us at [email protected].

Developing…
UPDATE 1:30 PM ET: ABC 4 KTVX reporter Marcos Ortiz has tweeted an unconfirmed report from the scene that a murder suspect or a fugitive may have been involved in the incident. He also says that one person may have been killed, but is awaiting a statement from the St. George assistant city manager.


UPDATE 2:15 PM ET: Brian Joseph Hedglin, a 40-year-old SkyWest pilot who was wanted for murdering his girlfriend in Colorado Springs, committed suicide in the plane after attempting to steal it.


ABC 4 reports that Hedglin rode his motorcycle to the airport and hopped a fence at around 12:30 am.
He then started up the aircraft and began taxiing.


According to one witness account, the plane hit a jetway, sheared its right wing into the terminal, plowed through the perimeter fence and collapsed its nose gear before taking out six cars and coming to rest in a ditch adjacent to a car parking lot.


Hedglin was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the aircraft.
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Old 17th Jul 2012, 23:43
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the plane hit a jetway, sheared its right wing into the terminal, plowed through the perimeter fence and collapsed its nose gear before taking out six cars and coming to rest in a ditch adjacent to a car parking lot.
He was a Skywest pilot???
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 00:01
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Heard on the news he'd lost the privileges of his license some time before.

Pictures seemed to show quite a hunk of wing missing, though very dark.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 01:02
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stepwick:

He was a Skywest pilot???
Appaently a suspended Skywest pilot.

Sounds like he wanted to go out in horrific style.

I cannot comprehend what is going on with some (a very few) pilots.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 01:18
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One wonders if his intention wasn't to get airborne, and erm, take out some others. What is the security issue here?

All I can think about is that idiot who walked thru a gate with a weapon onto a PSA Bae and assassinated both pilots after take off. But that was way befor TSA.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 04:06
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Pilot who 'killed his girlfriend' tries to steal a commercial plane, crashes it and then kills himself
By ASSOCIATED PRESS


An airline captain on the run after murdering his girlfriend today stole a passenger jet in an apparent attempt to escape but crashed the aircraft into a terminal building and then shot himself.
Brian Hedglin, 40, went on the rampage in a 50-seat passenger jet at St George airport in Utah days after murdering his girlfriend.
Police say he drove his motorbike to the St George Municipal Airport in Utah and scaled a razor wire fence while the airport was closed, using a rug for protection
He then boarded the 50-passenger SkyWest jet and drove it past a terminal building, clipping the wing, before crashing into cars in a parking lot.
The captain - who worked for Skywest - then shot himself in the cockpit.




The plane was damaged in the crash and will need to be repaired

Disruption: The Utah airport remained closed to commercial traffic as the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration investigated the incident
A police officer making routine rounds noticed the rug over the fence and moments later heard the sound of a plane's engine firing up.
He found the craft idling, boarded it and discovered Hedglin dead, a gunshot wound to his head.
The plane was not in service at the time and had no passengers on board. All commercial flights were cancelled until further notice.


Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday by police doing a welfare check at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide.
The Gazette of Colorado Springs, citing court records, reported that Hedglin dated Cornejo, for four years and was arrested in March after claims he had been harassing her.
They were both members of the Colorado National Guard. Hedglin had served part-time since 2008 as a chef. He had never deployed.
Cornejo was full-time, having worked for the Guard since 2006, becoming an officer in 2011.
The newspaper said he was free on $10,000 bond when Cornejo was found dead.


Read more: Brian Hedglin: Pilot who 'killed his girlfriend' tries to steal a commercial plane, crashes it and then kills himself | Mail Online
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 08:52
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He was a Skywest pilot???
Perhaps he had imbibed some Dutch courage?
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 09:04
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Oh Dear, the way things are going we are all going to be required to undergo yearly physc interviews along with our medicals
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 11:01
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jeez...sounds more like a Bruce Willis film plot.

poor sod must have been in a really dark place.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 11:34
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yes - poor murdering sod - lets hope despite all evidence hes in a dark warm place...

Now - sparing us the ubiquitous "RIP" posts... perhaps we could keep it to aircraft and not social studies GCSE/ amateur hour psychology?

Last edited by charliemouse; 18th Jul 2012 at 11:35.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 12:55
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Well, the airport authority must be lucky that this pilot couldn't get the plane off the ground and commit suicide, endangering perhaps other people.

The question is now, despite all the negative incidents of the last years and tight security, how was it possible for this pilot to commit such security breach??

Last edited by worldpilot; 18th Jul 2012 at 12:57.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 13:40
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Originally Posted by worldpilot
The question is now, despite all the negative incidents of the last years and tight security, how was it possible for this pilot to commit such security breach??
The security DID work. With his inside knowledge of the airplane & airport he was able to gain access to the cockpit & start the engines, but he still couldn't get it off the ramp without tearing the wing off.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 14:21
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It is a matter of the level of security, I guess. You, too, could throw a rug over a fence topped with razor wire to get onto the secured area of most any airport. You might even be able to get into an aircraft, but without specialist knowledge that might be as far as you get. That said, there was the 'Barefoot Bandit,' that goofy kid who stole numerous aircraft until he was finally caught.

I don't know about this particular type of aircraft, but I happen to have two keys in my possession that would enable me to unlock two fairly common types of aircraft, one 'large' and one 'small.' All of the aircraft of each type share a common key, and I have the keys because sometimes I flew those types.

Then you have the way that many small airports are secured by a keypad with the combination known to all, if not simply written down next to the keypad. All in all, we still depend on the fact that almost all of us are reasonable people who do not plan to steal an aircraft.

The odd lunatic might be deterred or simply delayed by what we have for security but he would not be stopped. That would mean posting armed guards on each and every parked aircraft, plus finding a way to read the crew's mind before each flight.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 14:22
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He found the craft idling, boarded it and discovered Hedglin dead, a gunshot wound to his head.
He taxied with the door open? Or how else did the police board the aircraft?
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 14:39
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TSA groping passengers ...

... is completely useless if somebody can just jump the fence and get into a plane. He could have hidden - something - and left again, unnoticed.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 14:53
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BobM2:

The security DID work. With his inside knowledge of the airplane & airport he was able to gain access to the cockpit & start the engines, but he still couldn't get it off the ramp without tearing the wing off.
If the security had worked he wouldn't have been able to get near the airplane. He was a suspended employee. Plus, even an active crew shouldn't be able to gain access to an aircraft that was supposedly secured for the night.

Also, I'm not sure how his tearing the wing off relates to airport security.

I suspect the FAA will be cutting the carrier a new one for the terrible security.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 15:00
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He taxied with the door open? Or how else did the police board the aircraft?
There's no problem opening a door like this from the outside, assuming you can get something high enough to stand on and that the airplane isn't pressurized. LEOs aren't dumb, but there are even how-to directions around the exterior handle.

Last edited by stepwilk; 18th Jul 2012 at 15:01.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 15:59
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No, the security did not work, the results speak for themselves....


Razor wire. Impenetrable? Not for a drunken and armed suspected murderer with a throw rug.....

Any aircraft can be a formidable weapon of terror, and or destruction. So, keeping intruders off the field failed. So let's wait for something to happen?

Any unattended aircraft needs a fail safe and secure ignition. Otherwise go cheap, and hire a guard.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 16:02
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'Terrible security'?

What more did you expect to see, in terms of securing a parked aircraft for the night? Once he was over that fence, well.... It reads as if he pulled the chocks, started it up, did his own push-back using reverse thrust, but then had things kind of unravel from that point. Otherwise, who knows? He might have had some notion of heading off into the great unknown in his stolen regional airliner, or perhaps he wanted to go out with a bang, but I don't see how one can say that this was down to 'terrible security.'

A 'fail safe and secure ignition...' brilliant idea, until it locks in flight! I would like to see the certification process for that one!

That cop was after him before the motorcycle he used to get to the airport had gone cold.

I doubt very much that there was any real deficiency in the required level of security. That level is not designed to stop this sort of crime. We have seen a student steal a C-150 he was sent out to pre-flight for a lesson, for Heaven's sake! What should we do, handcuff them first?

Let's see how this one plays out.

Last edited by chuks; 18th Jul 2012 at 16:04.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 16:41
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chuks:


I doubt very much that there was any real deficiency in the required level of security. That level is not designed to stop this sort of crime. We have seen a student steal a C-150 he was sent out to pre-flight for a lesson, for Heaven's sake! What should we do, handcuff them first?
Somehow, I fail to relate the theft of a light aircraft trainer with a transport airplane at a Part 139 airport.
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