DENVER (AP) – A United Airlines pilot has allegedly been charged with criminal embezzlement Destroy a gate with an axe In a Denver airport staff parking lot, he told authorities he tried to help several drivers exit and “he was just about to break his breaking point.”
Kenneth Henderson Jones, 63, is accused of repeatedly hitting the metal park arm with a long-handled ax on August 2, throwing it from its base and then fleeing on foot when confronted by a park ranger. The clerk told investigators he was able to take the gun from Jones during a scuffle near a security fence. The pilot then ran into a nearby field, where he was arrested by Denver police.
According to a report by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Jones told an officer that there were about six vehicles past each of the lot’s three exit gates, so he retrieved the ax from his parked car to help drivers exit.
“Kenneth initially said that he had just reached breaking point,” the report reads.
Jones, who was released shortly after the altercation, did not immediately respond to a phone message left by The Associated Press Friday night. A statement from the airline on Friday said Jones had been “cut off the flight schedule and placed on leave while United conducts an internal investigation.”
According to the sheriff’s office report, the parking lot manager said the damaged parking arm would cost about $300 to repair.