Car crashes into a passenger terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, driver arrested

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ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — A disoriented man slowly drove his car through doors Friday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, alarming morning travelers inside a busy terminal but causing no major injuries, authorities said.

The 67-year-driver was immediately arrested when the SUV stopped, said Tadarial Sturdivant, vice president of emergency and support services.

The man seemed “very disoriented” and said he was there to meet actor Tom Cruise and “to save his dad,” Sturdivant said.

“It is hard for me to put semblance behind it,” Sturdivant said.

A woman trying to avoid the vehicle declined treatment for a possible leg injury, he said.

Sturdivant said the car was traveling the wrong way in front of the Evans Terminal and was able to squeeze between concrete barriers near the entrance.

He said gaps between the barriers are required under federal regulations. The suburban Detroit airport, he added, is working on a redesign.

“It was scary, man, like, we didn’t know what to do,” Sedeq Arshuhtpi, who works at the airport, told WDIV-TV. “We don’t know what’s inside that car. There’s a lot of people around. There could be a threat, so everybody was nervous.”

In January, a man drove his car at a high rate of speed into the airport’s McNamara Terminal. The driver emerged from the vehicle yelling incoherently and was arrested.