Officials are investigating after a car drove through the entrance to Detroit Metro Airport’s McNamara Terminal on Friday, Jan. 23.
The crash took place about 7:30 p.m. Friday and the vehicle hit a ticket counter, the Wayne County Airport Authority said in a statement.
The driver was taken into custody, officials said. Six people were also treated by the authority’s fire department.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Whatever the cause, it made a terrifying noise, said Michele Wheaton, 54, of Pontiac.
Wheaton said she had just flown back in from a trip to Puerto Rico with loved ones on Friday evening when the crash happened.
She was on her way to the arrivals area to be picked up when she heard a loud bang with sounds of metal and glass, she said.
“I stopped and looked around like, ‘Did anyone hear this?’ ” she said. “Cause you heard the loud crash and then you just heard people screaming.”
Wheaton saw apparent security officers running, she said. One yelled, saying a car had crashed into the Delta area and asking whether anyone had called 911.
Her luggage already in hand, Wheaton booked it out of the building and to her ride, she said. She told her mom to drive away.
Though specifics of the incident have not been released, Wheaton expressed sorrow at the events of the evening and dangerous incidents that take place in public gathering spots.
“It’s so sad that you can’t travel, that you can’t go to the movies or your churches or your grocery stores,” she said.
Video circulating online following the incident showed a man in an apparent Detroit Lions jersey being taken into custody.
The airport authority’s police department is investigating.
Workers could be seen still working to clean around broken entrance doors about 10:15 p.m. Friday evening.
(This story was updated to add a video.)
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Car crashes through Detroit Metro Airport’s McNamara Terminal
Reporting by Darcie Moran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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