Car breaks through fence into Palma Airport
Friday, September 5th, 2014
Last week a car violently burst through the perimeter fence of Palma de Mallorca airport knocking down a section of fencing next to the Sant Jordi roundabout. The car was found in the airport but without documents identifying the driver.
The driver fled after allegedly driving around for a mile or so inside the enclosure of Son Sant Joan airport. The Guardia Civil are investigating the circumstances and are not ruling out that the damaged car, a Volkswagen Golf model, had been stolen and the driver was under the influence of alcohol.
On Friday morning Aena initiated a security protocol to comb the area and check that there were no persons within the facility. Guardia civil officers searched the airport grounds and the airport management repaired the perimeter fence that was damaged in the collision.
The incident was discovered between seven and half past last Friday when some airport security guards who were carrying out a routine patrol around the airport grounds spotted an open hole in the security fence surrounding Palma airport, according to sources at Aena.
A car was responsible for breaking through the security fence. In fact, the car was found and was far from the hole in the fence and point of impact. Officers inspected the car and found that no one inside and the engine was already cold.
After initial investigations, it’s thought that the driver could have traveled about two or three kilometers inside the airport grounds, then would have escaped on foot.
Although the Guardia Civil received notification of a traffic accident just after half past seven, it is suspected that the incident occurred a good few hours before dawn.
During the day at around noon the investigators conducted inquiries to try to locate the driver and to see if the car was listed as stolen.
One fact that caught the attention of the officers was the long distance between the point of impact and the place where the Volkswagen Golf rested on the airport grounds. The investigators attempted to reconstruct the route travelled by following tires tracts and the pieces that fell from the damaged car along the way.
Technicians also inquired if the driver could have got to the end of the runway, where he would have encountered beacon signals and become disoriented by the shock of the crash against the fence and the bright lights against the dark of night.
Airport ground staff repaired the fence where the damage was done by the Volkswagen Golf.
