Idiot for the day

Robert Moran has an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about another local moron:

Kenneth Richard Mazik parked a Jeep next to a locked perimeter gate at Philadelphia International Airport and waited. "As an airplane approached the airport in a final descent for landing, the driver suddenly accelerated" and crashed the gate, heading toward the plane "at speeds in excess of a hundred miles per hour," an FBI special agent stated in an affidavit.
While Mazik led police on a chase along several runways, air-traffic controllers diverted more than seventy planes into holding patterns and prevented the departures of eighty other aircraft.
Mazik, 24, of Chadds Ford, was stopped after several minutes, and now faces a federal airport-disruption charge that carries a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison. He also was charged locally with driving under the influence, reckless endangerment, and related offenses.
The incident raised questions about security at the airport: could anything have prevented the breach, and what can the airport do to prevent a recurrence? Airport officials issued a statement saying they "continually review airport safety and security procedures with the TSA, Airport Police, the FAA, and other federal agencies." They said the perimeter security fencing "meets or exceeds all federally mandated standards, and our airfield is secure."
Erroll Southers, a former deputy director of the California Office of Homeland Security, said the incident could have been prevented. "Here's a guy who wasn't a trained attacker and he was able to breach the perimeter," Southers said. "That's a problem." Southers suggested that retractable metal barriers, similar to those used at US embassies around the world, could be installed at the gates. He said that canals or berms should be created to prevent vehicles from reaching the fence from any road.
Douglas R. Laird, former head of security for Northwest Airlines, said that most airports can be penetrated by someone willing to crash through a gate or fence. "The problem the airports face is that, if you want to make access to the airport impenetrable" like the White House, you're talking millions and millions of dollars for something that doesn't happen frequently." As for terrorists' exploiting a perimeter fence, Laird said it wouldn't make sense: you don't need to drive a truck full of explosives through a gate and across a vast airfield hoping to reach a plane when you could easily pull up to a passenger drop-off zone in front of a crowded terminal, he said.
Why Mazik crashed the gate is a mystery. A woman answering the phone at his home declined to comment Friday.
The FBI said Mazik was combative while in custody, and hurt two police officers who were trying to put him in a holding cell. The affidavit said the breach resulted in a costly disruption of airport operations and "endangered the safety and passengers and crew of the aircraft" that he sped toward.

Rico says some people just look like crazed idiots... (And thanks to the 'former head of security for Northwest Airlines' for giving terrorists instructions on how to do it. Moron.)