Intruder at Air Force One base given up by ‘mouse ears’ after wandering around for hours
- Homeless man roams airbase housing Joe Biden’s plane for five hours
- He wore a cap with distinctive balls that looked a little like mouse ears
In a highly unusual breach of security last month at the airbase that operates the Air Force One presidential aircraft, an apparently aimless intruder went undetected for several hours and walked on and off a plane on the flight line before his quirky headgear gave him away.
He was wearing what a US Air Force investigative report released Thursday described as “a bright red or pink cap that partially covered his ears and had distinctive balls on top that looked a little like mouse ears”.
An airman in the operations office at Joint Base Andrews, located in Maryland just outside Washington, saw the man on the flight line and became suspicious, partly because of the headgear, and called security. Officials said he never got close to Air Force One.
The base, just south of Washington, is where the president, defence secretary, and other top officials fly from for official business.
It is also the arrival point for visiting VIPs like foreign heads of state.
For that reason security is always tight.
Yet the unidentified man was able to drive onto the base and spend five hours there at a food court, in the VIP terminal, and elsewhere before he drew attention.