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On Tuesday, passengers and crew at John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California, were witnesses to an unusual hijack situation on the facility’s apron. Rather than taking control of an aircraft, a 26-year-old man named by CNN as Jay Barr stole an airport tug and drove around for a short while before crashing the vehicle. He then attempted to steal another truck before finally being arrested.
The situation was flagged by pilots at the airport, making for some rather unusual and entertaining air traffic control transmissions over the airwaves in Orange County on Tuesday evening. Barr was supposed to be flying with 
Delta Air Lines to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) that day, but he has instead been taken into custody. The flight that he was meant to catch left on time despite the incident.
Pre-Flight Theft
According to CNN’s coverage of the matter, the incident began to unfold at around 5:30 PM local time on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, when Barr left gate 12 at John Wayne Airport through an access door. It was at this point that, having accessed the airport’s apron, he took a strange course of action, stealing one of the airport’s tug vehicles. He then took it for something of a joyride to gate seven at the airport.
Reporting by NBC 4 Los Angeles noted that the tug that Barr stole was a versatile vehicle that was capable of pushing and pulling things as light as luggage carts and as heavy as aircraft. Unfortunately, his adventure was short-lived, as, upon arriving at gate seven, Barr crashed the tug into another one of the airport’s vehicles. Commenting on the matter, a spokesperson for Delta Air Lines told CNN that:
“Delta has zero tolerance for unlawful behavior, and we take all incidents seriously. Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and people, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement.”
A Second Steal Was Attempted
Despite the dramatic ending to Barr’s trip on the tug, he attempted to continue his airport apron exploits by stealing a second vehicle. View From The Wing notes that, in this instance, his target was a lavatory truck used to empty toilets that belonged to 
American Airlines. Unfortunately for Barr, but fortunately for the sake of the airport’s passengers and crew, it was at this point that he was then arrested.
Barr now faces three charges relating to his misadventures on Tuesday evening in Orange County: vehicle theft, trespassing, and vandalism. Following his arrest, he was taken to hospital to be checked out, and now remains in custody, having long since missed his planned flight as a result of his exploits. According to View From The Wing, the area around gate seven temporarily had to be closed.
Air traffic controllers in Orange County also briefly brought flights to a halt while airport staff checked Barr’s taxiway route between gates seven and 12 for any signs of hazards, damage, or debris. However, NBC 4 Los Angeles notes that, overall, there was no meaningful impact to flight operations at the airport on Tuesday evening. This meant that the flight Barr was supposed to catch got to leave on time.
The Man’s Flight Operated Punctually Despite The Drama
According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Delta Air Lines currently operates four flights a day from Orange County to Seattle. Of these, three are run on its behalf by regional partners under the ‘Delta Connection’ feeder brand, while one is a mainline service. With Barr having run amok at 5:30 PM, the flight that he was supposed to get on was clearly DL3911, a 6:02 PM northbound departure.
DL3911 also refers to the inbound leg from Seattle. According to Flightradar24, Tuesday’s iteration, operated by a SkyWest Airlines Embraer E175 that bears the registration N256SY, left Seattle at 2:47 PM and reached Orange County at 5:01 PM. The return leg took off more or less on time, at 6:11 PM, and, by the time it landed in Seattle at 8:42 PM local time, it was some 18 minutes ahead of schedule.
