Teen boy armed with a rifle and gun demands a plane be given to him

A teenage boy allegedly stormed into an airport with an assault-style rifle and a gun and demanded an plane. The 15-year-old boy went into Texarkana Regional Airport in Arkansas from the general aviation side ‘demanding an airplane’ around 7.30am on Tuesday, authorities said. He walked into a business at the airport, Signature Aviation, and brandished ‘both a rifle and handgun’ at the front counter and called for a plane, according to the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department.

A staff member ran and informed police. The teen exited and came face-to-face with a pilot. ‘A pilot for a local private business retrieved his own firearm from his truck and began ordering the suspect on the ground,’ stated the police department on Facebook. ‘When confronted, the suspect complied and lay on the ground, at which time he was disarmed.’. The teen was ‘subdued quickly without any injuries’ and arrested, according to the regional airport.

Cops hailed the pilot a hero. ‘The fact that this incident was resolved quickly and peacefully, despite the extreme danger presented, is highly commendable,’ said the police department. Authorities have not identified the teen, who was not from the area. He has been charged with first-degree terroristic threatening, aggravated assault and attempted aggravated robbery, and is being held at a state juvenile detention center.

The airport remained open and secure and thanked ‘everyone for their quick actions and doing their part to keep our community safe’. A security response plan was in place at the airport, according to its director Paul Mehrlich. ‘We feel it did work in the way it’s supposed to, but of course, any time you have an incident like this, we find ways to improve it, make it faster,’ Mehrlich told KSLA.

‘If you can shave 10 to 15 seconds off, that can mean more lives saved in the future.’. The scare happened as concerns swirl around aviation safety in the US. Just over a week ago, the worst aviation disaster since 2001 befell the nation, when an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk helicopter collided and fell into a river in Washington, DC. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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