‘Hatchet-wielding’ intruder damages US military plane in Ireland (VIDEO)

Footage circulating online appears to show the intruder climbing onto a US Air Force C-130 Hercules parked on a remote taxiway at the County Clare airport. Some reports said he was wielding an axe, hatchet or a hammer as he struck the aircraft, though police have so far only confirmed an arrest for alleged criminal damage.

According to the Gardai, the suspect, a man in his 40s, entered an unauthorized area of the airport on Saturday morning and was arrested shortly before 11:00am under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. The response involved airport police, Shannon Airport’s fire and rescue service, and Irish defence forces stationed on site.

The breach forced Shannon to suspend operations, with two departing flights delayed and an incoming aircraft from Lourdes, France, placed in a holding pattern before the airport resumed normal operations at 10:15am.

It remains unclear whether the attack was motivated by the US campaign against Iran, but Shannon Airport has seen repeated incursions linked to opposition to the airport’s role as a refueling and transit point for US military traffic.

In January 2003, anti-war activist Mary Kelly used an axe to damage a US military aircraft at the airport in protest over the looming invasion of Iraq. Security was tightened immediately after that attack. Just days later, on 3 February 2003, the Pitstop Ploughshares group entered Shannon and damaged a US Navy aircraft in another anti-war action.

In a more recent incident in November 2025, three activists allegedly drove a van into a restricted area, approached a parked US military plane, and spray-painted a US Navy Reserve Boeing 737-700, forcing another shutdown. Months earlier, three women were arrested after breaching the perimeter and throwing red paint over a US-linked aircraft.