Driver fleeing police enters Oakland airport tarmac

A man with an “arsenal” of pellet guns in his pickup truck led police on a chase onto the tarmac at Oakland International Airport on Sunday, authorities said.

Police were searching for the man and believe he went into the bay and might have drowned.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said a man being pursued by deputies “rammed a gate onto the airport tarmac,” fled on foot and “may have jumped into the water surrounding (the) airport.”

There was no active threat to air traffic, and the airport was functioning without major delays, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Inside the man’s truck, authorities found the Airsoft pellet guns, which resemble real firearms, along with masks, hoods and binoculars.

“We’re not sure what he was up to,” said Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Sheriff’s Office.

Kelly called the situation “very bizarre.”

“We were very concerned he was going to drive onto a runway where planes were landing,” Kelly said. “That would have been a nightmare.”

Around noon, deputies saw the driver of a Chevy pickup run a stop sign inbound on Airport Drive, the main road into the airport.

When they tried to pull him over, he fled. The man drove through a closed access gate behind Terminal 2, leading deputies on a chase down an airplane taxiway near the runways before getting out and taking off on foot.

The driver was last seen running toward the water.

Deputies scoured the area by helicopter, drone and boat, using a thermal imaging camera. They also searched with police dogs.

The Sheriff’s Office said the man apparently went into the bay from the northwest corner of the airport, and the search was continuing Sunday night.