An incident involving a carjacker who intruded into the grounds of Tokyo’s Haneda airport Wednesday and drove around the runways for half an hour has revealed communication problems between airport police and the airport operators.
Airport police failed to inform the operators of the airport of the incident.
Toshiaki Terauchi, 32, reportedly carjacked a vehicle near the international flight terminal and drove it through construction fences onto the airport premises around 7:25 p.m. Wednesday. He then commandeered a limousine bus and later took off in another car, before finally jumping into Tokyo Bay, where he drowned.
The airport transport authority notified the airport office of the intrusion at 7:32 p.m.
The control tower ordered all three of the airport’s runways shut down at 7:36 p.m. All runways were completely shut down at 7:52 p.m. In the 27 minutes between the intrusion and shutdown, 12 planes used the three runways — seven to take off and five to land, the sources said.
Airport police were aware that a vehicle was on a spree on a nearby road before Terauchi drove onto the airport grounds. An officer tried to stop and question Terauchi, but he sped away, the sources said.
Safety management in the restricted area is under the jurisdiction of the airport office’s security force; even police cannot enter the area without authorization from the office
This made it difficult for police to track Terauchi after he drove into the restricted area. Authorities met Friday to discuss how to improve security cooperation.
After driving around the airport compound for about 30 minutes — in three different vehicles — Terauchi stripped off his clothes and jumped into Tokyo Bay.
Police said a blood test on Terauchi has revealed the presence of stimulants. Before carjacking the vehicle near the Haneda terminal, Terauchi had carjacked another vehicle in Kawasaki around 6:30 p.m.
Sign In
May 1, 2004 at 5:16 am