Friday night around 7:30 p.m., a Mercedes S-Class sedan drove through the front glass entry doors of the Detroit airport and into the Delta departures lobby and struck the Delta ticket counter. The area filled with glass and debris, and airport security and police took the driver into custody.
Fortunately there were no serious injuries, though Wayne County Airport Authority Fire treated six people at the scene. A K9 searched the vehicle but found nothing of a threatening nature. Officials indicated the driver was suffering “some kind of mental episode.”
It appears that barricades that are supposed to block something like this ended up inside with the car. I’m not sure that all passengers know you can’t park there. That is not, actually, the Sky Priority lane.
A friend sent me this video: A car crashed into the Delta Airlines baggage check-in area at Detroit Metro Airport pic.twitter.com/BoRPBvF8J2
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 24, 2026
Chaos at Detroit Airport
A man drove a Mercedes-Benz straight through the entrance of DTW's McNamara Terminal and slammed into the Delta check-in/baggage area
Friday night around 8:30 PM.
Bystander videos show the car inside the terminal, debris…— zamohappy (@zamohappy) January 24, 2026
#BREAKING: A man drove a car into the McNamara terminal at Detroit Metro Airport.
Bystander video shows aftermath inside the terminal. It’s unclear why the man crashed into the airport. pic.twitter.com/3CrVVEFFf0
— Metro Detroit News (@metrodetroitn) January 24, 2026
Oddly enough we’ve seen this before. A man drove across the tarmac ploughing through baggage claim and into Alamo rental car, another stole an SUV and crashed into the airport to escape the zombie apocalypse. One man was chased onto Portland airport by invisible trucks. Another took off his pants and drove a stolen truck into a Southwest Airlines 737. And of course a 1960’s-era Washington Dulles people mover crashed into the terminal just a couple of months ago.
Tim?
Tim has left the building!
Maybe someone with TDDS (Tim Dunn Derangement Syndrome).
Obviously, a driver seeking an elevated check-in experience.