Driver Fatally Crashes on Travis Air Force Base after Unauthorized Entry

air-force-plane
Travis Air Force Base officials reported that an unauthorized person drove through the base’s main gate and then fatally crashed on the night of March 21, 2018. Above, a flight engineer performs maintenance on an... Lance Cheung/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images

Updated | A motorist died on Wednesday night after driving through the main gate at Travis Air Force Base in California without authorization and then fatally crashing the vehicle, officials said.

According to a statement from the base, the car went through the main gate around 7 p.m. After the crash, "security forces immediately responded." The first responders included explosive ordnance disposal, also known as the bomb squad.

"The driver of the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene," according to the base's statement. "There were no additional fatalities or injuries."

Officials restricted access at the main gate during the incident but reported that there were "no current threats to the base or community." The gate has since reopened.

According to KCRA, the base was not put under lockdown.

When asked about the driver's identity and whether the crash was intentional, a spokesperson for the 60th Air Mobility Wing, which is located at Travis AFB, said the investigation is ongoing.

Travis Air Force Base is located in northern California, between San Francisco and Sacramento. It hosts more than 7,000 active-duty military personnel and more than 3,000 civilian personnel, as well as a few thousand members of the Reserve. The 60th Air Mobility Wing is the base's host unit.

The Wednesday crash comes about nine months after a previous security incident at Travis AFB, in which the base was locked down following reports of gunshots at its shopping center, known as an exchange. After an investigation, however, the emergency personnel investigating the potential threat found that it had been a false alarm—there was no shooter and no gunshots had been fired.

This story was updated to include a comment from the 60th Air Mobility Wing.

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