While this one incident may have been fairly harmless, I can see the concern if people start altering boarding passes. These passes are used to get through Federal security points. If bad guys start trying to alter passes in other ways, such to get the wrong people on board, there could be real harm. I can see Spirit's seriousness with handling this person the way they did.
None of the comments so far have mentioned the video in that article. Th video is tour of some behind-the-scenes areas of the 747. They show the avionics bay below the lower passenger deck, and it looks just like a server room. The video also discusses the technology of the electronics, etc. It's fascinating.
Would be interesting to know if rental companies self insure for this type of loss, or if they have policies with actual insurance companies for this coverage.
Also wonder what rental car companies used that grassy area for storage. My first through was what a stupid way to store cars. Although other comments here point out that with travel way down this may have been a fast way to store a large amount of unused vehicles.
When it became obvious that the conditions worsened to fog, couldn't the pilot have transitioned to instruments and ascended to above the clouds, notifying ATC of the need to do that due to sudden IMC? That helicopter can fly well above 10,000 feet and the pilot was instrument certified. There was no need to continue trying to remain below clouds/fog in order to visually follow roads on the ground.
It's time for airlines to move on with different aircraft. The airlines who own Max aircraft should fly them all back to Seattle, park them at Boeing Field, and demand their money back.