Airport vandalism spree puzzles Alaskan pilots

Tires of 87 planes were slashed in June

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — One month after the tires on 87 private airplanes were slashed at a small airport in Alaska’s largest city, police publicly released grainy surveillance images Friday showing what they are calling a person of interest in the unsolved case.

The four images show a figure dressed in dark clothing and wearing a backpack near airplanes recorded around 1:20 a.m. June 2 at Merrill Field in Anchorage. The person in the image is shown on foot near airplanes in three of the images and at a gate in the fourth. Police are hoping releasing the images will lead to further information.

There have been no arrests or suspects identified by police or the FBI, which is helping with the investigation. Police said the images were found after police reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from the area. Police still have more footage to review.

Soon after the incident, police asked area businesses and others for surveillance footage and did so again on Friday.

The consensus among many affected pilots is that this was no ordinary vandalism spree, but a carefully orchestrated mission. The airport, located at the edge of downtown, is home to 830 aircraft.

“It was an organized effort,” said Anchorage pilot Kris Nedwick, whose Piper Cub was among those hit. “It was clearly a well-executed, well-planned-out act of organized vandalism. I don’t know that I would call it vandalism because vandalism seems so random.”

In this case, the planes targeted are in two areas not covered by security cameras, pilots said, with much of the damage done to aircraft parked near Merrill Field’s southern perimeter where the nearest entrance does have cameras. Also, pilots don’t see how one person could have done all the damage, which involved cutting and piercing the two main wheels and tail wheel on scores of aircraft. Aircraft tires can run as high as $2,000 each.

Another pilot, Lars Gleitsmann, is among some pilots who speculate the incident might have involved a group of people with some kind of agenda, such as environmental extremists, neighbors angry about the noise caused by planes, or individuals launching some kind of class warfare against people who own private aircraft.

“If you look at the political landscape of the United States now, there are so many people that are radicalized,” he said.

Merrill Field manager Paul Bowers said every potential lead was being explored in the investigation. No theories are being automatically rejected.

RACHEL D’ORO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Kris Nedwick on Thursday discusses damage done to his private airplane in early June when an overnight vandalism spree left dozens of airplanes with slashed tires at a small airport in Anchorage, Alaska. No arrests have been made.