CLEVELAND — There are more questions about security at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport after dispatch records show it took nearly an hour for police to get called after an SUV ran through a gate and into the secure perimeter at the airport.
According to a recording of police radio traffic on the website Broadcastify.com, a dispatcher notified Cleveland Police at 3:47 a.m. Sunday that a security guard reported a yellow SUV was stuck between the fence and the guard wasn't sure how the vehicle got there.
A TSA spokesman told 5 On Your Side Investigators that the vehicle drove through a gate and into a secure area inside the airport's perimeter fence at 2:51 a.m. Sunday. TSA says the SUV was driving within the secure area for about three minutes, before crashing through a fence and into a snowbank outside the secure area at 2:54 a.m.
So how did no one notice the security breach until a private security guard saw the SUV nearly an hour later?
In dispatch recordings you can hear a Cleveland Police Sergeant ask about airport police.
"Airport is handling, correct?" the sergeant asked a dispatcher.
"They are not handling," replied the dispatcher. "Requesting that we respond."
Investigators say the driver, 26-year-old Daniel Allen, was drunk. Allen faces a number of charges including DUI, failure to control and vandalism.
A spokesman for the city wouldn't comment on the response to the security breach other than to say it was under investigation.
TSA says the city did report the incident. The agency will now evaluate the city's response.
The agency is already looking into how Cleveland handled an October incident in which the airport's former head of security was accused of escorting another city official around a security checkpoint so that he could catch a flight.
