You know you’re in for something really crazy when internet legends ‘Florida Man’ and ‘Mustang Driver’ collide, all the more so if they are one and the same person.
That was the case on Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Florida, when 58-year-old Brian J. Parker crashed his seventh-gen Ford Mustang GT at high speed through a locked and secured gate of the local airport.
Suspect Admitted to Alcohol and Drug Use Before Chaotic Incident
He then drove his blue Mustang across an active runway, nearly hitting a student-training plane on the taxiway. As if this wasn’t reckless or stupid enough, the man then ditched his car and “attempted but was unsuccessful in gaining control of two aircraft,” according to a Daytona Beach International Airport press statement.
Fortunately, airport security agents chased the man on foot and managed to immobilize him less than 4 minutes after he broke into the airport’s premises, with police detaining him shortly after. It wasn’t a walk in the park, though, as the following excerpt from a Volusia Sheriff’s Office statement reveals.
“Witnesses reported Parker’s Mustang entered the taxiway and nearly struck an Embry-Riddle plane that was taxiing. Parker then got out of Mustang and tried to enter the occupied plane, but was unsuccessful. As Parker ran to other aircraft in the area, an airport operations technician chased him down, pulled him out of a plane and sat him on his truck’s tailgate. However, Parker jumped off the tailgate and ran toward another plane before he was once again apprehended and placed in handcuffs.”
The body cam footage shared by Volusia Sheriff’s Office on its Facebook page showed the man was “highly intoxicated,” as he himself admitted at the scene. “I don’t remember. I was at my house, I went to an AA meeting and next thing you know I’m doing cocaine, drinking and smoking pot,” the man said when a police officer asked him what had happened.
The man was in such an inebriated state that he uttered “What’s my car doing over there?” just as police hauled him into the back of a patrol car with his hands in cuffs.
Arrested on a List of Charges Longer than a Resume
Byran J. Parker, a resident of Holly Hill, was arrested and booked on several charges, including attempted aircraft piracy, burglary of a conveyance, trespass upon operation area of an airport, exposure of a sexual organ, criminal mischief, DUI property damage, and refusing to submit to testing, according to Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
A judge called his actions extreme and denied him bond based on worries about the suspect’s mental health, WKMG News6 ClickOrlando reported.
Thankfully, no one was hurt during the chaotic incident, authorities said. Needless to say, things could have been way worse had he crashed into the taxiing student-training plane or if a bigger plane had happened to take off or land at that time.
“We would like to commend the eyewitnesses who immediately called 911 to report the incident, and the Air Traffic Controller who quickly reported the suspicious vehicle and took action to ensure the safety of airfield operations,” Daytona Beach International Airport wrote in its statement.
