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Crime

Surveillance Video Shows Alleged Murder Suspect Stealing, Crashing Commercial Plane

Nov. 9, 2012 1:43pm Liz Klimas

In July, a man suspected of murdering his girlfriend stole a jet and crashed it in the airport parking lot before he committed suicide while on the plane. Now, surveillance video of the scene that unfolded in the parking lot at St. George Municipal Airport in Utah has been released.

SkyWest Airlines pilot Brian Hedglin was a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend Christina Cornejo from Colorado Springs in mid-July. A few days after the body of Cornejo was found by police, Hedglin, who was on administrative leave from the airline at the time, commandeered an empty 50-passenger jet and proceeded to drive it erratically on the tarmac.

Surveillance Footage Released Shows Brian Hedglin Stealing a SkyWest Plane at Utah Airport Where He Crashed It in July

Brian Hedglin, a murder suspect, stole a jet at a Utah airport in July before he committed suicide. (Photo: AP Photo/Colorado Springs Police Department)

A SkyWest regional jet sits on the tarmac on the opposite end of the St. George Municipal in July. (Photo: AP/The Spectrum, Jud Burkett)

ABC News reported that Hedglin damaged 14 rental cars, crashed into fences and light poles, and hit the side of a terminal building with the plane’s left wing.

Aerial view of St. George Municipal Airport. (Photo: AP/The Spectrum, Jud Burkett)

Watch this ABC News report with surveillance footage of the incident, which was released Wednesday:

Hedglin unable to take off in the damaged plane was found on board with a fatal gunshot wound to the head that he inflicted upon himself.

“His left wing clipped the jet bridge probably making it inoperable,” St. George city spokesman Marc Mortenson said at the time of the July 17 incident, according to ABC News.

Hedglin making it onto airport property by jumping a fence and his other actions raised airport security questions at the time. These security issues have continued to crop up with a separate incident involving a man walking onto the terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in August.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Comments (24)

fiveft15
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 1:54pm
New John Denver remake, Rocky mountain high, marijuana.

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Captain Morgan
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 1:13pm
Looks like the normal SkyWest airlines departure procedure to me.

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John 1776
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 11:13am
Just another crazy liberal. “I want my everything so I’ll just “take” this plane.”

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nighttrainno9
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:00am
Somehow, this story doesn’t make sense. There is alot that
isn’t being told. An experienced pilot making rookie mistakes
just doesn’t make sense.

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- Marine 1
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 10:34am
  Talk about a “Fill” story. What? A slow news day!
  
  I thought this was weird story back in July and it’s still a weird story.
  
  Pilot kills Girlfreind – Rides motorcycle From Colorado to St. George, Utah Airport – Jumps the Fence – Steals RJ – Clips Wing and Cannot Fly – Runs Through a Fence and Shoots Himself.
  
  Sounds like he had already smoked 15 pounds of weed while in Colorado! Which brings me to this…
  
  Just imagine what it’s going to be like now that Colorado has “legalized” POT! Probably a good idea to stay as far away from Colorado as possible. Imagine someone on alcohol and pot (or more) at the same time coming at you on the freeway. No thanks! They wipe you or your family out and get off with a slap on the wrist. You bury your family and the driver goes to jail for 3 months. Lose-lose proposition. Already happening – Yep! Just going to get worse.
  
  Colorado’s new tourism ad : “Come get a real Colorado High – It’s Legal Now! (Disclaimer: No sleeping in the gutters allowed.)
  
  Just goes to show everyone how stupid the people are in Colorado that voted for the proposition.
  
  Report this comment
- daxbrady
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 11:33am
  I thought the same… If this guy was a pilot it doesn’t look like he would have torn the wings off the plane trying to make his escape…. I saw no sign of anyone giving chase on the videos. Something isn’t being told.
  
  Report this comment
- corbecket
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 2:34pm
  Nah. This makes perfect sense. If he’s smart enough to get it started (and he was), he’s smart enough to realize that there was really nowhere for him to go. Where’s he going to go. You just don’t “vanish” with an airliner. Every ground and airborne/military based radar is going to be attempting a “hit” on your aircraft. It’s not like in our post 911 world, that the military isn’t going to scramble interceptors on a big target like this one.
  
  My guess is that he knew his time was up and he was going to go out with a bang. I was talking to a Skywest pilot in Hong Kong (both of us on holiday), when this happened, and he didn’t seem to think that the guy was even checked out on that equipment (nor did he hold a type rating). That would have made it a bit more unlikely re. any airborne shenanigans.
  
  No one was killed besides the perp, so the loss of the airframe was minor in comparison.Too bad the COS cops didn’t catch him first, after he killed his victim.
  
  Report this comment
- Ishmot2
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 5:03pm
  He shot himself in the head which made him crash into the building. not the other way around. Listen to the black box recording. He knew he was screwed!
  
  Report this comment
PorkPIG
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:52am
Keep the heads ringing -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJqt0u_TCs

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steve-in-pa
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:30am
I have no idea how he crashed… he probably had at least 20 hours on Microsoft’s Flight Simulator,lol.

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Coyote6
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 5:11am
Why are we just hearing about this today? Wouldn’t this have been major news in July?! This is the first I’ve heard of it?

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- orkydorky
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 11:41am
  Is this story ok’d by the Obama administration as one that takes attention away from all the scandals and treason issues of this administration? Are we just going to lay down now that BO got elected again???
  
  Report this comment
- corbecket
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 2:43pm
  I dunno’ why you didn’t hear about it at the time. It was on the news in Hong Kong while I was there, so I assumed that it was broadcast in the US. Maybe you just weren’t watching TV that day. It’s possible.
  
  Report this comment
grayling646
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 12:27am
Where the heII was he gonna go if he got airborne?

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- nzkiwi
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 3:53am
  Good grief, don’t ask…
  
  Report this comment
meisterman41
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 6:31pm
I’m a pilot, he is not! If he were a pilot he would have flown the jet, not crash the thing! He was smart enough to remove the wheel chocks, so I’ll give him credit for that!

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- starman70
  Posted on November 9, 2012 at 7:55pm
  He must have been up on something. The actions look like those of a drug crazed individual.
  
  Report this comment
AJAYW
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 4:50pm
poor man
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The-Monk
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 2:00pm
Some people just wanted an ObamaPhone….

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on November 9, 2012 at 2:04pm
  Lol! the lengths people will go to,to get one.
  
  Report this comment
sparkyrules
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 2:00pm
He looks strikingly familiar to another nut job……….

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/jared-loughner-pleads-guilty-to-arizona-shooting/

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MMSands
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 2:00pm
Either he was a murder suspect or he wasn’t a murder suspect. He may have been an alleged murderer, but not an alleged suspect. That doesn’t even make sense. C’mon guys.

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- SovereignSoul
  Posted on November 9, 2012 at 2:24pm
  Perhaps it was rumored that he may have been a possibly alleged suspect.
  
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ResistSocialism
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 1:51pm
Must have been having a bad **** day

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