PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten- Vandals broke into St. Maarten’s international airport Sunday and set fire to a police helicopter, authorities said.
The intruders entered the Princess Juliana International Airport by cutting a hole in a fence sometime in the early morning, Police Chief Derrick Holiday said. They set fire to the helicopter parked off to the side of the airport’s runway, burning its tarpaulin cover and destroying the windshield, Holiday said.
“Fortunately the damage was little,” Holiday said. “If (the helicopter) can’t be fixed today, we’ll get another one tomorrow.”
The leased four-seat Robinson R-44 helicopter has been used for aerial patrols of St. Maarten and the nearby Dutch Antilles territories of Saba and St. Eustatius since 2002.
Police have no suspects in the incident, Holiday said.
He said the helicopter would soon be moved to the main police station, where officials plan to build a helipad.
Airport manager Eugene Holiday, the police chief’s brother, called the incident “unfortunate” and said officials were planning new security measures at the airport, including adding a buffer zone between the airport fencing and a public road that runs alongside it.
St. Maartens is one of five semiautonomous Dutch Caribbean territories that make up the Netherlands Antilles.