BURBANK : Jet’s Pilot Aborts Landing to Avoid Man on Runway
A man walked onto an airport runway in Burbank on Tuesday just as a Boeing 737 airliner was about to land, forcing the pilot to bring the flight around while the man was seized by police.
Dalton Escobar, 23, was looking for work cleaning private aircraft on the general aviation side of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport when he became disoriented and walked out an unsecured door and onto a runway about 200 feet away, said airport spokeswoman Elly Mixsell.
An air traffic controller in the tower spotted the man crossing Runway Eight about 9:50 a.m. and radioed America West’s Flight 484, which was arriving from Phoenix, Mixsell said. The jet was 150 feet from touchdown when it aborted the landing and circled around while police arrested the man, she said. Nobody was injured, she said.
Escobar had an outstanding traffic warrant and remained in custody late Tuesday at the North Hollywood jail, Los Angeles police said.
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