Man accused of sneaking onto plane in Pa.

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Man accused of sneaking onto plane in Pa.

PITTSBURGH (AP) =97 A man described as a paranoid schizophrenic sneaked=20
through security at Pittsburgh's airport late at night and was found=20
sleeping aboard a parked commuter airplane the next morning, authorities=20
said.  The airport's security chief said he was "extremely upset" over the=
=20
weekend incident.  Louis Esquivel remained at the Allegheny County Jail on=
=20
Wednesday in lieu of $25,000 bond, county Police Superintendent Ken Fulton=
=20
said. He was charged with criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen=20
property and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.  Flight attendants told=20
police they found Esquivel, 23, of San Antonio, at 5:30 a.m. Saturday in a=
=20
seventh-row seat of an American Eagle plane. He had neither proper=20
passenger credentials nor an airport pass, according to an arrest warrant.

Allegheny County police said Esquivel told them he was able to dodge=20
security by ducking behind a closed ticket counter in the all-but-deserted=
=20
airport late Friday.  From there, he went through a tunnel, got on the=20
tarmac, and jumped aboard a United Airlines van where he found the keys in=
=20
the ashtray, according to an affidavit. He drove to a gate, got onto an=20
enclosed ramp and boarded the unlocked plane, officials said.  "It raised=20
tremendous alarms for me and, obviously, I'm extremely upset about it,"=20
said Robert Blose, head of security for the federal Transportation Security=
=20
Administration at Pittsburgh's airport.

Airport spokeswoman JoAnne Jenny said ticket counters are supposed to be=20
kept secure either by airport officials or airlines. Officials are=20
investigating whether someone forgot to secure the baggage conveyor belt or=
=20
if something was broken.  Esquivel has paranoid schizophrenia, according to=
=20
a San Antonio police missing-persons report. He disappeared May 18 from a=20
small boarding home, said his mother, Maria Esquivel.  "He wasn't trying to=
=20
blow up a plane or something like that," she said.  Esquivel told a flight=
=20
attendant he was a passenger from the evening flight and simply spent the=20
night on the plane, police said. But later, police said, he told detectives=
=20
he wanted to fly the plane to St. Louis, his boyhood home.  "I mean=20
literally fly it," Fulton said. "We are dealing with somebody who is not in=
=20
reality here."  Police said after leaving Texas, Esquivel made his way to=20
Los Angeles and then to Pittsburgh, where he stayed at least one night at=20
an airport hotel.  Federal rules require parked airplanes to be=20
disconnected from jet bridges and their doors closed but does not require=20
them to be locked, Lisa Bailey, an American Eagle spokeswoman, told the=20
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.


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