By NAN Contributor
News Americas, ORLANDO, FL, Fri. Sept. 21, 2018: A 22-year-old Caribbean national was yesterday charged with criminal attempt to steal an airplane after he hopped a fence and boarded an American Airlines aircraft sitting in a maintenance facility at the Orlando-Melbourne International Airport. Here are five things you should know about this young man:
1: He has been identified as Florida Institute of Technology student Nishal Sankat who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and entered the US from Canada. He has been at FIT since 2014 and recently petitioned to graduate in 2019, according to university officials. He’s been studying aviation management on a part-time basis and has taken part in some flight training in the past.
2: Sankat is in custody and also faces a visa violation and criminal trespassing charges. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Sankat received his commercial pilot’s certification in January and was qualified to fly multi-engine aircraft and was instrument rated.
3: Orlando-Melbourne International Airport officials said Sankat drove to the curb outside the airport, left his car running before hopping a fence and boarding the plane. An avionics technician was in the plane’s galley when he saw a shadow and grabbed him with help from another technician after he could not show a badge. They got him off the plane and police was called but he broke free and ran along the airfield before police took him into custody about two minutes later.
4: Sankat also lives in Melbourne and studied at Hillview College according to his Facebook profile and was born in Port-Of-Spain. He lists his skills as aerospace avionics, air navigation, Firearms and general and military aviation. His timeline photo featured a crashed plane.
5: The FBI and The Joint Terrorism Task Force are now investigating and trying to determine a motive in the case, according to Orlando-Melbourne International Airport spokeswoman Lori Booker. Melbourne is 70 miles southeast of Orlando. The news comes as the US government on Wednesday designated two Trinidad born nationals as ISIS financiers.
