Flaming SUV freezes
flights out of KahuluiThousands are stranded for
hours after a man drives inside
the Maui airport and sets
his vehicle on fire
A 52-year-old Haiku man set his sport utility vehicle on fire after driving it inside the Kahului Airport terminal yesterday morning, shutting down outgoing air service for more than nine hours.
Maui police detectives and FBI agents arrested Paul Blatchley on suspicion of first-degree criminal property damage and were holding him for questioning at the main police station in Wailuku.
"We believe it was an individual acting on his own personal reasons," said FBI spokeswoman Pam McCullough, adding that her agency and the U.S. Attorney's Office are pursuing federal charges. "There's no reason to believe that it was a terrorism incident."
There were no injuries in the incident, which took place about 7:58 a.m. Flights were allowed to land at Kahului, but none were allowed to take off. Dozens of people -- workers evacuated from inside the terminal and passengers -- milled around the baggage claim area after the incident.
As flights arrived, passengers were allowed to pick up their luggage, but people leaving or transferring to other flights had nowhere to go. A temporary shelter was set up at the nearby War Memorial Gymnasium, where some passengers spent the night.
Aloha, Hawaiian, Delta, American and ATA airlines resumed departures from the airport at about 6 p.m. yesterday, and United and Northwest followed suit just after 7.
Witnesses said the blue Dodge Durango with Massachusetts license plates spelling "NOAH 50" pulled over the curb and into an area in front of the ticketing counters.
"He made a right turn, right into the United counter," said Dawn Duques. "I was checking in for a flight to Honolulu."
Kalani Hoopii said he and two other baggage handlers went up to the truck and saw a can of gasoline and a man flicking a lighter. "I went to knock on the window, and he just lit it up," Hoopii said.
At that point, he said, he and his co-workers backed away. He and other employees got people out of the terminal.
"We just told everybody to back up," he said.
An employee at the airport said he approached the vehicle to see why someone had driven into a pedestrian-only zone.
"All of a sudden," said the employee, who asked not to be named, "the vehicle caught on fire from the back seat." He said the suspect had two coolers in his back seat, which also caught on fire.
"I thought he had a bomb," the employee said. "I told everybody, 'Hey, get the hell out of here.' ... I wasn't concerned about the guy. I was concerned about getting all the people out of there."
The man was wearing a blue T-shirt, long pants and appeared to be barefoot, witnesses said. It was unclear from witness reports at what point he got out of the SUV.
Airport security personnel detained him.
Jeremy Haupt, a Kapaa High School swimming coach, said he thought the incident was a security demonstration until he saw the flames.
"It was the most scary and exciting thing," he said.
Fire damaged tiles on the ceiling, said Jon Sakamoto, Maui District airports manager. He said sprinklers would have to be replaced on about a fourth of the ticket lobby ceiling on the south side.
Lowrey Leong, the Transportation Security Administration's Maui security director, said the incident raises questions about vehicular accessibility at Kahului Airport.
Leong said he was unaware of an incident like the one yesterday occurring elsewhere, and it has given him a "different outlook" as far as the vulnerability of airport security.
"I never heard of anyone driving into a terminal," he said.
Leong said the man said something aloud when he was outside the vehicle, but it did not appear to be a political statement.
"Regardless of what the motive was, we are taking this very seriously," state transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said.
To prevent copycat incidents, Honolulu Airport upped security yesterday, putting in barriers and planters at departure and arrival lobbies and increasing curbside security, Ishikawa said.
Crystal Wolshin, 16, with the Kapaa swim team, said the smoke from the blazing truck rose to the ceiling in the terminal.
"It didn't hit me until later," she said. "I said, 'Oh my gosh, this is like a terrorist attack.'"
On an average Sunday, about 6,000 people fly in and 6,000 people fly out of the Maui airport on about 40 interisland and 23 overseas flights.