A Cleveland, Ohio man thought it was very funny after he crashed a car into a control tower at a Cleveland airport, causing several flights to get grounded as airport staff had to stop airport operations for about 30 minutes until the airport activated its backup generator.
On November 23, Benjamin Woolley, 26, stole a woman’s car, and drove it into the fence of the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. He then crashed the vehicle into the control tower.
Brook Park Police Department officers arrested Woolley, while he was walking on the Aerospace Parkway at the airport. He told the officers that he intended to board a plane to Athens, Alabama, to see his two children, a son, and a daughter and that he would do whatever it took to get to his children.
At the time of his arrest, police noticed that Woolley’s hands were bloody. He explained that it was because he was being “stupid and rowdy.” The seemingly confused man told the police that he was looking for attention.
Woolley did not seem to understand why he was being arrested, but one of the officers told him it was because he stole a car and crashed it into the airport fence. The 26-year-old told the officers that he too had been a sheriff’s deputy at one point.
An FBI affidavit shows that Woolley was arrested on several charges, including destroying an airport facility, carjacking, and entering restricted territory in an airport. The affidavit also states that Woolley’s car crash on November 23, a busy time for the airport, right before the Thanksgiving weekend, incapacitated power to the air control tower resulting in the grounding of numerous flights. The document also said Woolley laughed off the incident, calling it a joke.
Earlier that evening, Woolley went into the parking lot of an apartment building and stole a Volkswagen Tiguan, which was left running by the owner. The owner of the car said in the affidavit that she saw a man approaching her car, jumping into the vehicle and driving off. She said she was thrown to the pavement when she attempted to stop him from stealing her car.
After Woolley stole the car, he drove to the airport, crashed through the gate, and into the airport’s air control tower.
At least seven Cleveland-bound flights had to be diverted to other destinations because the power to the control tower was shut down.
After the police read Woolley his Miranda rights, he said he was an overseas veteran, wanted to speak for people who don’t have a voice in society, and then started laughing to himself. One police officer asked him if he thought the incident was funny, to which he replied that some people would find it funny.