A United Airlines pilot was arrested in Denver after pulling out a axe from his car and hacking a parking gate. He later told police, “I just hit my breaking point” and quite frankly, I find myself empathetic.
The Axe-Wielding United Airlines Pilot In Denver
Last night, a friend sent me news about the story along with this, which made me burst out in laughter:
View this post on Instagram
Of course this is not just a random meme, but replays an incident that unfolded at Denver International Airport (DEN) on August 2, 2023.
I see I am a bit late now in reporting on this, but I do want to go over what happened and add my two cents.
63-year-old Kenneth Jones, a United 757/767 pilot based in Denver, may have been tired after a long day of duty. And then there was there parking gate, that never seemed to work. And suddenly that delay proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Pulling out an axe from his trunk, Jones hacked at the gate 23 times before permanently disabling it. Suddenly, egress was no longer delayed.
And we can joke about how he deals with conflict with his wife or why in the heck he had a massive axe in his car in the first place, but he now has been suspended from work and faces a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge. The damages total $700.
He was also temporarily detained:
This is not like the mob-style smash-and-grab robberies that have afflicted California lately. The guy lost his cool, had a breakdown (so yes, he should be mentally evaluated before ever being allowed to pilot a plane again), and made no attempt to conceal his identity. He will pay the $700 it will take to repair the gate (the therapeutic effect of smashing it was probably worth a lot more) and hopefully this incident will lead Denver Airport to fix the gate so that it functions properly.
We cannot defend his action…it was puerile and showed a lack of self-control. But I do empathize with him: haven’t we all had the urge to do exactly the same thing at one point or another? And if that gate did not work properly (and perhaps did not work properly for years, despite many previous complaints) then maybe his actions were not so unjustified after all…
CONCLUSION
The video is rather dramatic, but I take a rather sympathetic view toward the United captain who hacked a parking gate in Denver. It may be that he is unfit or the cockpit and will be forced to take an early retirement. On the other hand, if the gate was broken and no one at the airport was taking it seriously, perhaps he had to do what he had to do…
I’m fine with it. F that gate.
Correct response
Agreed!
Nothing about his behavior seems inappropriate to me. Fix the gate, stop ignoring it and making it everyone else’s problem.
I don’t. I have to fix gates like for a living. I have several points to make on this. 1. that’s an aluminum gate. The ax is going to do little to it quickly. 2. if you just push it, it will bend much more quickly. 3. if you just lift up on it it will go up much more quickly (and cost more to repair). 4. The other gates seem to work just fine. 5. If a gate is enough to make you lose your mind, you definitely have a weak mind.
We all reach a breaking point at times. And we all like to think we’d keep our cool, but often that just won’t be the case.
Well, at least the gate will be fixed and hopefully it will work again when apparently it was not working properly.
So he hit his breaking point of waiting “seconds” not “hours” for a parking gate to lift open.
I would hate to be on his working flight with a “long” flight delay.
Who keeps an ax in their car trunk?
Maybe if more people kept axes in their trunks we wouldn’t experience what we are experiencing in many cities today. Yesterday, two blocks from my house in a very quiet neighborhood right before lunch time, a woman was with her two young kids taking groceries from her car in her driveway. A car with 4 guys stopped in her driveway and they demanded her to give them the keys of her SUV and they left with her car. Maybe if she had an ax in her trunk they would have left her alone. Who knows????
What city is this?
People here call it “Portland of the Midwest”. If they had axes, well then will see who has the best skills handling it.
One woman with an axe versus 4 people with an axe each? You really haven’t thought this through, have you…
You can call it the Rio of the north for all I care. Your cheap shots aside do you really think that a mother with multiple small children should ask the nice carjacker people to wait just a moment, walk to the trunk, open it, pick up her axe, brandish it, then likely die because she introduced deadly force that was turned on her? An axe is not a magic wand and this ain’t Harry Potter. My vehicle is not worth my life. Or yours. Or even the piece of trash stealing my car.
Also what if those 4 guys also had axes?
Get a chain saw! Lol I live in the country and it’s common to have to clear fallen trees especially with all the wild weather, shovels and cold weather kits for winter as well!
Dude, grow up. I am not talking about the lady. I am talking in general. Read my post, I said “people”. Gangs are all over here stealing cars from driveways, from supermarket parking lots, fitness center parking spots, etc… They usually use their number (4 or more people) to make sure you surrender. If you, Aaron, has an axe or a baseball bat in your trunk and 4 thugs come walking to you asking you to give them your car key, maybe show them the axe will scare them away.
Grow some common sense. See what Christian wrote above. And pray that not everyone does have an axe since the odds are unlikely that only the “good” ones will be carrying them. But keep doubling down on this not-so-well-thought-out nonsense.
The gate attack is one thing, but the tussle over the axe is more troublesome. Someone could have been seriously injured.
No sympathy from me despite the circumstances
Who are you and why does it matter if you give him a pass or not?
I’m surprised stuff like this doesn’t happen more often. It seems that most US airports I visit have automated gate systems that are not functioning properly at every single visit. Sometimes there is no human attendant around to seek help from.
If you take an axe to the gate, a few workers who previously couldn’t be bothered to work on the gate, show up real quick
Your last point is spot on.
Better the gate than his spouse or a flight attendant. I have empathy for him. Wonder how many times he told someone to fix the figgin gate prior to this.
I had to return to DIA around 8PM on 7/31 to recover my mishandled luggage. I parked in short term, got my bags, got to the exit. Rain blowing in under the gate rain shelter lowing rain made my ticket too damp for the machine to scan. It had insufficient ink in its printing to be legible to the attendant the help key summoned. Thus began a 35 minute wait at the parking gate with a remote attendant trying to find my license plate in the poorly functioning license plate scanning database while I repeatedly said “I was here less than an hour, can’t you just charge me $7 and I can go?” I don’t know if they ever found it, but eventually they charge me $7. there were some other difficulties with the gate system that forced me to back out and back in a few times before it would let me pay. 3 people, me, the attendant and the remote person sifting through data spent > 30 minutes of their time, for $7.
I did not hack the gate, but yeah, I sympathize. DIA needs to fix their crappy hardware.
Reminds me of a story about how a person was able to get potholes fixed in their town. Basically spray painted political messages over potholes which forced the town to fix the potholes.
Wasn’t there another one where a guy spray painted dicks on potholes? I’m not sure which is more offensive in 2023
Dude looks pretty good for 63. Maybe he’s on to something here . . .
He looks more like 33 truth be told!
A chainsaw would have done the job quicker and without breaking a sweat. $700.00 in damages is bullshit. Maybe $200, max.
Thought the same thing! Send a bill for mental health treatment to airport officials lol
My sister and I once forced a parking garage gate open. There was a massive back up in the parking garage and the exhaust fumes were making people feel awful. We said goodbye to our parents and went and got a drink while they opted to wait in the line of cars. An hour and a half later we came back and they were in the same spot.
We talked with the garage attendant and he said he has to have security’s permission to open the other gate. We talked to security and they said the attendant had to get the approval from his company.
So we took matters into our own hands and forced open the other gate. We stood by the gate and directed people out of the line and thru the other gate. Couple hundred very happy grateful people.
We later found out that gate had been broken for a week and wouldn’t open. The parking company knew and did nothing despite knowing it was opening night for the City Opera.
The attendant took down our license plate but we never heard anything. Probably afraid of a lawsuit.
All you assholes are doing i cluding Klint is supporting anarchy. Taking and ace to government or private property is not the answer. This unhinged senile clown should be fired, a decade ago
Whoa dude back to taking your meds!
Hey, even Dave Grohl, the nicest man in music, has smashed a few drum sets and guitars in his day. We all are Kenneth Jones at times.
But then again, is that the patience we want in the cockpit with our daughter on board? As much as we all feel some sort of understanding, the reality is he will probably never set foot in a cockpit again. His career is likely over.
In the meantime, there are no police around for shoplifters, they just let them go in California and no police response for people breaking and robbing cars in San Francisco.
There are No Police around to protect the general public in our cites but you have to arrest a pilot for breaking a gate?
I must admit taking an axe to the gate was not a good idea. Technically speaking, you probably could defeat the mechanism by lifting it up with some strength and breaking the wood with your hand might have been a better idea. Now he’s probably in trouble with the Dept of Homeland Security,
Mental health is of utmost importance especially for pilots. Job related, family related stress? Now he will probably be on health disability and probably be referred to a program at United that addresses issues with stress and mental health, which is a good thing.
If you actually knew how bad the employee parking situation is in DEN, you might even see him as a hero. DEN does nothing to make it easy to work there for its 35,000+ employees. Not all heroes wear capes!
Ain’t just in DEN; slow gates at DFW are common, and often don’t work at all with tolltag. I don’t blame the guy. I’d probably take a chainsaw to it
This guy’s frustration resonated so directly with me, that I actually started a gofundme for him, please see the link below. This guy needs a vacation, probably some help with legal bills, and some therapy couldn’t hurt. And we ALL could too. He clearly had just a really crappy day before this happened, and the guy could use some empathy.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kenneth-jones-airline-pilot-who-attacked-gate?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-first-launch&utm_medium=more&utm_source=customer&mibextid=Zxz2cZ
True dat at DFW gates. It has been explained to me that in peak times the computers get overwhelmed and cannot process all. In the meantime everyone behind you is cursing you to high hell thinking your toll tag balance is zeroed out
Should never occupy the left seat again. No excuse for such bad behavior but it seems excuses for bad, violent actions are rampant. Bad childhood, family or financial problems are used as excuses for anything goes actions.
We all have problems and we deal with them in a sane manner. do we smash the window of a car that cut us off, or ram the grocery cart of someone who cut in line ahead of us?