Orlando, FL – Man Charged With Trying To Steal Jet Plane At Orlando Airport

Orlando, FL – A 22-year-old man was charged on Thursday with trying to steal a passenger jet at an Orlando airport, where he jumped a fence, boarded the aircraft and tried to make it into the cockpit before he was detained, officials said.

The man, a student at Florida Institute of Technology, did not manage to get the plane moving, Orlando-Melbourne International Airport spokeswoman Lori Booker told reporters. She added she did not know what the motive was in the incident.

The man parked his car about 150 yards (140 meters) from the plane, kept the car running and jumped the airport fence, Booker said. After he reached the plane, two technicians and two security guards detained him.

“We are pretty proud of the security success that we had,” Booker said. “Within two minutes, not only was he challenged, stopped, detained and arrested, but we prevented much further from happening.”

The American Airlines plane was at a maintenance facility for the installation of broadband WiFi, a spokeswoman for the airline said in an email.

The incident occurred a little over a month after an airline worker stole an empty passenger airplane from Seattle’s airport and crashed it into a nearby sparsely populated island.

The Florida Today newspaper, citing local law enforcement, identified the man who tried to steal the plane on Thursday as Nishal Sankat.

He was charged in Florida state court with criminal theft of an aircraft, criminal trespassing and a visa violation, Booker said.

Two flights were delayed at the airport due to the security breech, the airport said on social media.

Representatives for the FBI and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

It was not immediately clear if Sankat has obtained an attorney.

Sankat’s Facebook page said he was studying aviation management at the Florida Institute of Technology and that he was originally from Trinidad and Tobago. The page also had a number of aviation-related photos, including the wreckage of a World War Two-era fighter plane in muddy ground.