CLEVELAND — There are new concerns over security at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
In February, an alleged drunk driver broke through a fence and drove onto a runway. New documents obtained by Channel 3 reveal it took hours before airport officials even knew.
It was 2:52 in the morning when Daniel Allen plowed through a fence at Hopkins, drove onto the runway for nearly three minutes, and then drove out, crashing into a snowbank near the I-X Center.
Nearly an hour later, I-X security called police, who arrested him. All the while, it appears Hopkins airport security did not even know.
The internal investigation revealed that when city employees showed up for work at 5 a.m., they saw the fence was down, but assumed contractors did it.
A total of five people came to work before security was called around 5:48 a.m.
In a memo, the airport’s security manager later asks, “Shouldn’t someone have stayed at the gate?” and suggests the employees should be disciplined.
Their supervisor wants to then meet the manager in person, noting in writing that their e-mails were “creating public records.”
In its review, the TSA noted the airport was “extremely lucky that no flights were occurring” at the time.
The agency also pointed to a 2017 letter where they cautioned that vehicles could be utilized as weapons, and offered to help implement measures to mitigate that threat.
Allen faces felony charges, which include vandalism and DUI.
A spokesman for the City of Cleveland said no disciplinary action will be taken against the airport employees.
The TSA is not looking to punish the airport, but rather, to use what happened as a teaching moment.