Police chase leads to brief lockdown at Eisenhower National Airport

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A police chase that ended in a crash outside Eisenhower National Airport caused a brief lockdown Saturday night, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol and a woman who was at the airport at the time.

66-year-old Kathy Riker was picking up her sister around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. As she waited in the pickup area outside the airport, she heard a loud boom.

“Next thing you know, there’s a lot of sirens,” Riker said. Around 10 police vehicles drove up, she said.

Some of the police officers headed toward the parking garage. Others started coming up to vehicles, telling them not to leave the airport and to “move up as far as we could from the doors,” Riker said.

A couple officers went inside the airport, and Kathy heard a message over the loud speaker.

“We heard them say, ‘Anyone in the terminal, remain in the terminal,’” Riker said.

She said she had no idea what was going on.

The chase was started by the Kansas Highway Patrol. A dispatcher with KHP said that 34-year-old Samantha Bailey was “driving crazy” on W. Kellogg with an expired tag.

When a trooper tried to pull Bailey over, she fled toward the airport, KHP said. She ended up driving off the road and hitting a concrete pole near the entrance of the airport’s parking garage.

She was pinned in her pickup, KHP said.

After finally being removed from her truck, she was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. She had minor injuries, KHP said.

The Kansas Highway Patrol, the Wichita Police Department, and the Wichita Airport Authority could not confirm or deny the lockdown.

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