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A man apparently under the influence of a controlled substance breached security at Lindbergh Field, San Diego's international airport, Thursday evening. This caused inbound and outbound flights to be halted for seven minutes, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Airport authority spokesman Jonathan Heller told the Union-Tribune that suspect Jonathan Edgcomb, 34, first climbed over an outside perimeter fence topped with barbed wire at the east end of the runway. He then scaled what is called a "blast fence" in close proximity to where planes stage before takeoff.
"A maintenance worker saw him right away" and called San Diego Harbor Police, Heller said to the Union-Tribune. Officers took him into custody in about five minutes, the spokesman added.
Harbor Police Lt. James Jordan commented to the Union-Tribune that Edgcomb was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and two trespassing charges, one relating to the airport in general and one for being in a secure airport area.
It was unknown whether the individual was injured in the misadventure. He was not wearing a shirt, the lieutenant revealed to the Union-Tribune.
As per the county jail website, Edgcomb was booked at the San Diego Central Jail on the three misdemeanor charges that evening and will be arraigned in court Monday morning.
A video taken by an air passenger and posted by NBC 7 San Diego shows Edgcomb from a distance behaving erratically, twirling around on the tarmac. The captain can be heard over the airliner's PA commenting, "(there's) something you just don't see too often," adding "he's got some issues."
This isn't the first such incident for the airport. NBC 7 obtained police documents stating that three Marine recruits from the nearby U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot pulled similar stunts in separate incidences between Jan. 2013 and Feb. 2014
Glen Winn, an aviation security consultant who was a participant in a Lindbergh Field audit said to NBC 7 that the airport now has a police car stationed at the runway to swiftly snag intruders.
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