Corporate jets tagged by vandals at Van Nuys airport

Taggers cut the fence at Van Nuys Airport sometime Sunday evening and scrawled graffiti on three corporate jets parked near the end of the runway, police said.

Officials discovered the tagging across the fuselages and tails of the palanes Monday morning.

This is the second time in two years that taggers have managed to compromise the airport’s security and damage aircraft.

The vandals left what investigators believe were their tagging names or monikers on the planes. Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon said the taggers cut through a perimeter fence, headed to a darkened part of the airport and spray-painted three jets.

“It is embarrassing. It is not something we want to be happening at our airports,” Gannon said. He said the incident showed the need for improved measures to ensure the aircraft could not be compromised.

Gannon said the airport is in part of the San Fernando Valley known for a tagging culture, and airport police are working with graffiti experts from the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division to track down the culprits. Gannon said it’s estimated that it will cost a few thousand dollars to clean up two of the jets; he did not have an estimate yet for the third aircraft.

A Learjet sustained as much as $100,000 of damage at the same airport when it was spray-painted with the word “flame” and “R.I.P.” in July 2013.

For more crime news, follow @lacrimes

ALSO

Car strikes tree in Venice area; three people killed and one hurt

Rocker Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead dies at 70

LAPD searching for 2-year-old girl who vanished with father on Christmas Eve