Student Pilot Charged with Attempting to Steal A321

[Airbubba]

A copycat crime inspired by the fatal SEA Q400 incident? I believe the American Airlines A321's go into the shop at MLB to have inflight wifi installed or upgraded.

Orlando Melbourne airport: FIT student pilot charged with attempting to steal airplane

J.D. Gallop,
Malcolm Denemark and
Rick Neale, Florida Today Published 6:16 a.m. ET Sept. 20, 2018 Updated 12:41 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2018

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 plane has been charged with a criminal attempt to steal an airplane.

Authorities also booked the unnamed man for a visa violation and criminal trespassing.

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 man — who left his car running in front of the passenger terminal — entered the plane about 2 a.m., authorities reported.

“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.

Lori Booker, spokeswoman for the airport, said the Melbourne Airport Police Department responded within 2 minutes.

The 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.

"It would be inappropriate for the university to release the suspect’s name, and 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.

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.

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.

Authorities 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 of 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. The student pilot has connections to Canada. He also has a Florida driver's license, Booker reported. It was not immediately known how long he has been in the United States.

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.

The commercial plane can carry more than 200 passengers. It was not in service at the time of the incident.

Thursday’s security breach was thwarted quickly, unlike some recent incidents that drew national attention.

Last month at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, an apparently suicidal Horizon Air luggage handler entered the cockpit of an unoccupied Bombardier Q400 turboprop, took off and flew for an hour before crashing into Ketron Island.

Booker said security training helped prepare the officers and the staff for their response to the breach.

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.

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/n...ce/1365792002/

[parabellum]

Attempting to take without the owners permission would seem to be the appropriate charge, difficult to prove he didn't intend to return it to its owner?

[Airbubba]

According to media reports the suspect left his car running at the curb before jumping over the fence to get into the A321.

From the FAA pilot database:

Personal Information NISHAL KIRAN SANKAT

#40 ARNOLD BATES CIRCULAR DRIVE
ST AUGUSTINE
Country: TRINIDAD & TOBAGO Medical Information: Medical Class: First Medical Date: 1/2014MUST WEAR CORRECTIVE LENSES.Certificates COMMERCIAL PILOT
Certificates Description

Certificate: COMMERCIAL PILOT
Date of Issue: 1/10/2018

Ratings:
COMMERCIAL PILOT
AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE LAND
INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE
PRIVATE PRIVILEGES
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND
Limits:
ENGLISH PROFICIENT.

[Deadstick126]

I believe it was Kerry Sanders of NBC Nightly News that reported the aircraft in the hangar with the nose toward the back, and that "The A 321 doesn't have thrust reversers." Good reporting there.

[601]

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.

Why???????

[Bull at a Gate]

I imagine the authorities would have been investigating whether he had damaged any aircraft, left something on a runway and so on. He was airside after all. Good on them for being careful.

[parabellum]

Also a golden, (and legitimate), opportunity for the airport and associated forces to put all their drills into practice, see how the system works.

[PukinDog]

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.

Originally Posted by 601

Why???????

Originally posted by Bull at a Gate

I imagine the authorities would have been investigating whether he had damaged any aircraft, left something on a runway and so on. He was airside after all. Good on them for being careful.

Well, if I were hiring a new Director of Security for an International Airport handling air carrier traffic, I know who would get the job.

[PukinDog]

Originally Posted by parabellum

Attempting to take without the owners permission would seem to be the appropriate charge, difficult to prove he didn't intend to return it to its owner?

You should try it on an airport in OZ, see if that's what you get charged with. Let us know if what you think is appropriate here is what you get there. Thanks.

One thing for sure, he demonstrated "How to flush all your newly-acquired aircraft Certificates and Ratings down the toilet, do some jail time, and get deported too" in one, easy step.

[EDLB]

One thing for sure, he demonstrated "How to flush all your newly-acquired aircraft Certificates and Ratings down the toilet, do some jail time, and get deported too" in one, easy step.

Yes you wonder about his decision making capability. There is not much worse what you can do to end your career for all technical or travel involving jobs. A few years earlier and they would have water boarded him at Gitmo for this.

[PukinDog]

Originally Posted by EDLB

Yes you wonder about his decision making capability. There is not much worse what you can do to end your career for all technical or travel involving jobs. A few years earlier and they would have water boarded him at Gitmo for this.

Perhaps his decision-making was skewed by alcohol? Almost exactly 40 years ago I knew of a college kid about his age who, likewise a great aviation enthusiast but highly inebriated, after the bars closed tried to scale the fence of a nearby Strategic Air Command base because he wanted to get a closer look at the B-52s parked there, he loved them that much. Being the Cold War era, SAC wasn't amused at all by his hi-jinx, not in the least and even though he was clearly an idiot (I mean, you have to start Stupid in order to do something THAT stupid under the influence of alcohol because a Not Stupid person would've had to drink so much in order to get that stupid they'd pass out long before they could imagine something like that would be a good idea let alone actually try). They kept him as a special guest at the base for a week before telling anyone where he was or turning him over to the cops, most likely reminding him how shooting him while trying to come over the fence was in their bag of options to use. He didn't get killed, but his career certainly did while still in it's infancy.

So this sort of thing isn't new, but I find it incredibly lame that anyone would flush it all just to look at a garden-variety Airbus airliner. A 321 of all things, not even a widebody. How could anyone be so attracted to something so banal and unexciting they'd trash their aviation career to go have a look? There's not even the slightest chance of any weapon let alone a nuclear device being aboard like a SAC B-52 in the '70s which at least is built by Boeing and has 4 X the engines, so if he's no terrorist then at minimum he's guilty of being enamored by super-Boring aircraft on top of being super-Dumb, which adds up to it being a super-Pathetic act of Stupidity. Frankly, if I were him, as a pilot I'd be embarrassed by my choices.

I attribute this present day kid's lack of imagination and stunted sense of thrill-seeking while committing a (probably, hopefully) alcohol-fueled trespassing crime to spending too much time growing-up indoors playing video games that don't even cost money to replay and receiving participation trophies instead being outside skateboarding without helmet or sissy pads and having rock fights with his friends where winners and losers are automatically self-evident. That's my theory anyway, which actually gives him a small crumb of benefit of the doubt while apportioning a measure of blame to his parents who kept buying him Xboxes and putting those participation trophies in a showcase instead of throwing them in the nearest garbage dumpster where they belonged.

If he's not a terrorist and did it sober, well then, his act is simply beyond all comprehension except perhaps to other super-Boring, unimaginative people who although may exhibit signs of intelligence while living in a cocoon are by-and-large clueless once released into the world. If that's the case, he's beyond hope.

[macdo]

I'm actually surprised that this hasn't more often, bearing in mind how easy it would be to steal an aircraft from many regional airports and how simple it would be to get to the end of a runway and get airborne. I see a future when no commercial aircraft is left unattended unless disabled and attached to an airbridge. Having had a go, manually un-docking an airbridge is harder than flying the plane :-)

[Airbubba]

An update on the incident:

WFTV speaks with worker who stopped student during security breach at Melbourne airport

By: Kelly Healey , Steve Barrett

Updated: Sep 21, 2018 - 6:15 PM

MELBOURNE, Fla. - Channel 9 spoke with the airport maintenance worker Friday who stopped a man as he boarded an American Airlines jet that was undergoing maintenance.

"I knew right away -- I mean we're trained," said airport maintenance worker Shayne Graves. "No badge. Looked down -- no shoe on that foot. This isn't right. Nothing's right about this kid."

Melbourne airport officials said that Trinidad and Tobago native Nishal Sankat breached airport security around 1:30 a.m.

Authorities said Sankat tried to steal the airplane.

Graves confronted Sankat while he was on the plane. Graves said he didn't hesitate to act because he thought about the 9/11 attacks.

"I said this isn't going to happen again," Graves said, sobbing.

He was looking around, and I said, 'You’re coming with me. You're coming off this airplane.' I put him on the ground at the entrance door, got him on that golf cart, and we went into the hangar," Graves said.

"I really think he's a guinea pig, testing airport security. I really do," Graves said.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the FBI, is now investigating, but Sankat already faces state charges of violation of a visa, criminal trespassing and criminal theft of an aircraft.

Officials said Sankat is being cooperative. He is being held at the Brevard County Jail.

Graves said the suspect appeared to be on drugs.

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/wftv...port/838753579

Nishal Kiran Sankat, 22, was charged Friday with three counts related to the alleged attempted theft of the plane: one count of unarmed burglary of an occupied conveyance, one count of trespassing in an occupied structure or conveyance, and one count of grand theft worth $100,000 or more. The burglary and theft charges are both felonies.

Authorities said Sankat left his car running outside the airport and he climbed the fence surrounding the facility before boarding the empty Airbus A321.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/airport-wo...opstories.html

[scifi]

Well I don't think they have proved anything so far. And when the primary witness appears on television, surely that has corrupted any evidence needed by a jury.
Lots of people board aircraft each day, that is all we know he did. The link to intended theft is very tenuous.

[PukinDog]

Originally Posted by scifi

Well I don't think they have proved anything so far.

It's a given nothing has been proven yet. That's what a trial is for.

And when the primary witness appears on television, surely that has corrupted any evidence needed by a jury.

Surely it hasn't.

[Officer Kite]

Aviation enthusiast kid on drugs thinks it would be fun to go for a late night walk around the airport. How have they arrived at the conclusion that he was planning to steal the aircraft and Mr. Graves is making out like he prevented the next 9/11? .. talk about jumping to conclusions

[WingNut60]

Let him sleep with a few tattooed gentlemen for a short while then piss him off home to his parents.
He should get the message.

No need for Fla. or Federal tax payers to pay for his accommodation.

[Standby Scum]

Placing any part of oneself in the arc of a propeller is a very bad idea.

[scifi]

PD, quote...
And when the primary witness appears on television, surely that has corrupted any evidence needed by a jury. Surely it hasn't.

The point is that where are you going to find 12 jury people who have not seen this witness's communication via the media.
In the UK at least, the place for giving evidence is in a courtroom, under the control of legal attorneys and a judge.
.

[MarkerInbound]

Originally Posted by parabellum

Attempting to take without the owners permission would seem to be the appropriate charge, difficult to prove he didn't intend to return it to its owner?

That is the definition of theft in Florida.

(1) A person commits theft if he or she knowingly obtains or uses, or endeavors to obtain or to use, the property of another with intent to, either temporarily or permanently:

(a) Deprive the other person of a right to the property or a benefit from the property.

(b) Appropriate the property to his or her own use or to the use of any person not entitled to the use of the property.

Since the value of the aircraft was more than $100,000.00 it's Grand Theft. Somewhere there's a new video game, Grand Theft Airplane.