A photographer reportedly breached the security perimeter around Joe Biden’s chartered plan in Pennsylvania on Friday, prompting Secret Service to spring into action and physically remove the unnamed man.
As CBS News reported, the incident took place as the Democratic presidential nominee and his wife, Jill, were walking up a plane staircase at the Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. A person holding a camera reportedly made his way onto the runway area, walking around the rear of the airplane and under its left wing as he joined a group of credentialed members of the press who have been traveling with Biden.
The report noted that members of the Secret Service intercepted him as he reached an area under the wing, physically removing him as he briefly resisted. The report stated that the person showed an orange pass around his neck and said he was a photographer.
CBS News reported that he had evaded other security measures before reaching the airplane.
“The man apparently either jumped a green, six-foot fence near the small terminal where a few dozen people gathered or entered the tarmac through an unauthorized pedestrian gate,” the report noted, citing airport general manager Chad Gontkovic.
After making it over the fence, the man reportedly walked 75 yards to reach the former vice president’s aircraft.
“A member of the media who was credentialed for an event earlier in the day attempted to gain access to the airport tarmac for the departure of Presidential Candidate Biden,” a spokesperson for the agency told CBS News in a statement.
“The individual encountered law enforcement, disregarded their instructions, and accessed the tarmac. U.S. Secret Service personnel apprehended the individual and escorted him from the area.”
The incident was also captured by photographers from Getty Images, showing the brief struggle.
Biden has been traveling with Secret Service protection since March, when he looked to be in line to win the Democratic Party’s nomination. It is customary for presidential candidates to receive protection.
It was not clear whether the person, who has not yet been named, would face any charges for the incident.
Biden had traveled to Pennsylvania on Friday to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, which is set up in a rural field in the southwest part of the state where the final plane crashed on 9/11. During the trip, Biden also paid a visit to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co. Station 627, speaking with first responders and making good on a promise he had made eight years ago to bring them beer.
