Man crashes truck after driving down airport runway

A Lexington man allegedly told police that he was traveling to Florida and had used methamphetamine before driving his pick-up truck down the runway at the Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport early Sunday morning, according to a Whitley County Sheriff’s Department release.

Jonathan Brookshire allegedly crashed his truck on the runway at the Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport early Sunday morning.

About 2 a.m. Sunday, Whitley County E911 dispatchers observed from their office in the airport’s terminal a Ford F150 driving up and down the runway.

“A dispatcher watched the truck drive into the fence and become stuck. A man ran from the scene, jumped the guardrail and disappeared into the woods,” the release stated.

Deputy Brian Hensley, Kentucky State Police K-9 Officer Dallas Eubanks, his K9, and Williamsburg Police Officers Mike Taylor and Cody Jeffries all responded to the scene but were unable to track down the driver, who had fled the scene, according to an arrest citation.

Officials later determined that the vehicle entered the secure area by driving through a gate, the release stated.

About 9 a.m. Monday, 911 Director Jason Wilson notified Hensley that the subject had returned to the airport.

When Hensley asked Jonathan Brookshire why he ran his vehicle through the fence, Brookshire responded that, “he was lost and didn’t know why he drove through the fence other than he was not the smartest person,” Hensley wrote on the arrest citation.

Brookshire also allegedly told police that he had been up for three days due to taking meth, the arrest citation stated.

Hensley charged Brookshire, 33, with second-degree fleeing or evading police, leaving the scene of an accident, first-degree criminal mischief, third-degree criminal trespassing and public intoxication.

He was lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center.