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Someone keeps stealing, flying, fixing and returning this man's 1958 Cessna
https://archive.ph/ujPYV https://archive.ph/ujPYV
- kens 1y agoThe article says that he found cigarette butts in the airplane. This DNA evidence would make it straightforward for the police to find the culprit if they wanted to.
- filleduchaos 1y agoPossessing someone's DNA doesn't automatically, magically tell you who they are. If there's nothing to match it to then all you have is someone's spit.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoExcept now, thanks to 23andme and other vast DNA database dragnets, an unknown person's DNA can be narrowed down to a few people based on their relatives.
- pinewurst 1y agohttps://archive.ph/ujPYV https://archive.ph/ujPYV
- hasnd 1y ago[dead]
- elSidCampeador 1y agoVery bizarre. To fly a plane out, won't the pilot of the plane have to speak with ATC? I wonder if letting the ATC (of the municipal airport) be informed that this plane tends to be flown by someone who might not be authorized might help?
- JCBird1012 1y agoIt depends on the airport! Some smaller airports (like Corona Municipal Airport where the story is based) - are untowered, meaning that there's no central ATC to chat with when taking off/landing - everyone announces what they're doing as they're doing it and there's a traffic pattern/flow that everyone follows to ensure there's no conflicts - it works surprisingly well. In the US, you can get shockingly very far without having to chat with ATC.
- geoffeg 1y ago> everyone announces what they're doing Well, most people. :) There's no "requirement" that pilots announce their intentions on the common frequency at uncontrolled airports, some aircraft may not even have radios.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> no "requirement" that pilots announce their intentions on the common frequency at uncontrolled airports, some aircraft may not even have radios Got to love it when a Citation whose pilot is to arrogant to radio and a crop duster that doesn’t have any instruments to speak of are both in the pattern.
- geoffeg 1y agoThere have been many times I just decided to come back to the airport a bit later. Or circle well above the airport and watch the chaos below.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> circle well above the airport and watch the chaos below Having been cut off by that particular pilot once in the pattern and once when I was holding short, I’m absolutely there for everyone on CTAF absolutely tearing them apart for a straight two minutes until someone from UNICOM tells the Vietnam vets in their hangars to shut the fuck up. (Eastern Idaho. Uncontrolled.)
- panzagl 1y agoThis reminds me of the Douglas Adam's biscuit story. Maybe there's a plane that looks like his one hangar over or something. https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/l4k9he/douglas_adams_train_station_biscuits_story_or/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/l4k9he/douglas_ad...
- hinkley 1y agoLook around for an identical plane in apparent disrepair.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y agoCan we just not assume drugs or some other crime? Edit: also this version of the biscuit story is missing the final extra flavor text! The version I read ended something like, “What I love about this tragedy is that there is another bloke who has been telling the exact same story about an insane person stealing their biscuits. Except his version does not end on the punchline.”
- jaysonelliot 1y agoEvery time Douglas Adams' biscuit story is told, I laugh as hard as if I were hearing it for the first time.
- tengwar2 1y agoI think it goes back to Jerome K Jerome, at least.
- gxs 1y agoMy cars been stolen twice and both times, given the type of car, where it was stolen, and where it was abandoned the cops said it was most likely stolen to conduct a drug deal and then ditched Seems plausible that something like that may be going on here
- softbuilder 1y agoThis is actually a plot line in Landman, where the cartel occasionally steals the oil company's jet and then returns it.
- avidiax 1y agoRelated article: https://www.jalopnik.com/1932213/cessna-172-plane-stolen-twice-in-one-week/ https://www.jalopnik.com/1932213/cessna-172-plane-stolen-twi... ------ Interestingly, airplanes can also get repossessed. Special pilots get all the legal paperwork arranged and just show up and fly a plane out. I suppose the high skill needed means that most pilots wouldn't want to steal airplanes, and it would not make sense to steal any airplane that needs special support from the manufacturer (the new owner can't keep it flying). Cars are much lower skill to steal and maintain and have a much broader market. https://aerocorner.com/blog/what-happened-to-airplane-repo/ https://aerocorner.com/blog/what-happened-to-airplane-repo/
- sidewndr46 1y agoFrom what I've been told by fixed wing pilots, flying a plane isn't really that hard. At least one baggage handler stole a commercial passenger aircraft recently and flew it out, including acrobatics. Flying one in a safe manner and following all the rules can be pretty difficult however. For example there is an area near me that is from the air as boring as any other part of Texas. It's controlled airspace because it is the Bush Family Ranch. The secret service will investigate you if you fly over it.
- dcrazy 1y agoLanding is tough because it’s somewhat counterintuitive. You need to maintain enough airspeed to avoid a stall but obviously you need to slow down to lose altitude and, you know, stop.
- crinkly 1y agoYeah. I've been in an A320 simulator before for a few hours. They are pretty easy to fly and land. What isn't easy is getting one in a state ready to fly and to the runway. I can fly a Cessna 172 (didn't get enough solo hours for PPL though) and it's not difficult. Again prep is the hardest bit.
- sidewndr46 1y agoOh yeah for larger jet aircraft certainly it is. I read that apparently the SR-71 preflight was so big it was performed by a backup crew and the primary crew had the option to simply jump in and fly if the timetable required it. But a small single engine aircraft isn't nearly as bad
- ksherlock 1y agoIt's probably just that new startup, Aero. It's like Turo, except airplanes instead of cars. Also, they don't tell the airplane owners. But seriously, there are lots of airplanes sitting on ramps for months at a time with no security so it's a minor miracle it doesn't happen more often.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoInvoluntary idle airplane sharing, monetization, and littering. Approved by 4 out of 5 drug runners and human smugglers.
- MarkusQ 1y agoShe isn't "returning" the plane, she's landing it somewhere and he's finding out it's there later. And she isn't "fixing" it, she's replacing bits (the battery and headphones) he removed to make it harder to steal.
- flippyhead 1y agoThat was my first thought. There's only so many places you can take it. Though I guess they could also ... hide it in a hangar somewhere?
- mirkules 1y agoBut don’t all pilots have to lodge their flight plans? Surely hiding a plane in a hangar is not that easy since you would know which airport it is located in.
- wingspar 1y agoNo. Many flight types do not require flight plans.
- csours 1y agohttps://www.ecfr.gov/search?search%5Bdate%5D=current&search%5Bhierarchy%5D%5Btitle%5D=14&search%5Bquery%5D=flight+plan&view=standard https://www.ecfr.gov/search?search%5Bdate%5D=current&search%... Or browse by Title 14, Chapter 1, Subchapters F & G (Aka Title 14, Parts 89 - 139) I'm not vouching for this link in particular, but you can also search for things like Part 91 operator, Part 135 operator, etc https://l33jets.com/resources/blog/the-difference-between-part-91-and-part-135-operations/ https://l33jets.com/resources/blog/the-difference-between-pa...
- mrandish 1y ago> But don’t all pilots have to lodge their flight plans? No, they don't. And many municipal airports aren't even manned and, outside of certain areas, aren't under direct air traffic control. I flew in a Cessna with a private pilot who landed at a municipal airport in Los Angeles Country without ever talking to anyone. He just announced his intention to land on the published radio frequency, received no objection (because no one else was around), visually confirmed the runway was clear with a flyby, then lined up on the approach path and landed. I got the sense this is the norm in civil aviation outside of major airports.
- geoffeg 1y agoI imagine it's someone that doesn't have the monetary means to rent or buy a plane combined with a bit of mental health issues. At the uncontrolled community airport I got my PPL at there were a few pilots who were known to have expired medical certificates and long expired flight reviews flying planes that they owned that hadn't had an annual inspection in years. All older guys who had nothing to lose if the FAA found out and grounded them. I'm not sure why the owner of that aircraft doesn't setup an alert for it's tail number on one of the many aviation tracking sites. Call the airport management, police or local FBO once he sees it on approach to land at some airport.
- MBCook 1y agoHe’s 75, he may not know those sites are an option. That said how is the airport not doing something about this? They just keep letting it happen?
- geoffeg 1y agoSome smaller airports are pretty sleepy. There's no control tower at his home airport (Corona Municipal Airport) and it doesn't look like there's an FBO there. There's probably generally no one at the airport unless someone is there to take their plane up. Even if there is someone there running out to the ramp every time they hear a plane startup would get tedious very quickly.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- b112 1y agoThere are even just 'airfields' here, if that's even the proper name. They're just well maintained grass fields with a place to tie up a plane and refueling. Maybe that's too far in a rural area for this conversation though.
- ritabratamaiti 1y ago
- flippyhead 1y agoI absolutely loved this book: https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Bandit-Colton-Harris-Moore-American/dp/1401324169 https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Bandit-Colton-Harris-Moore-A... Written by a guy who actually lived on the islands where this was happening (where I also happen to live).
- arthurcolle 1y agoProbably drug smuggling… this is kind of like the plot in Landman
- tracker1 1y agoPretty much my first thought as well. I'd probably setup some kind of lo-jack + dashcam setup to try and get images of the "burrowing" person(s) though. You'd think maybe the DEA, ATF, FBI and/or FAA would find enough interest in this to operate some level of sting operation or crack down.
- parliament32 1y ago> But Montanez said there’s no immediate indication as to who the culprit is. My understanding was you cannot fly without filing a flight plan (or is this just a Canada-specific thing?), and that flight plan has to be submitted by someone, so there has to be a trail here. If the plans were not filed, after all, how would he be able to tell the plane was flown "multiple times" during one of this extended absences? EDIT: Yes it's Canada-specific, required for any flights over 25 nautical miles, including VFR https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-96-433/page-59.html#h-994113 https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-96-433/p...
- symfoniq 1y agoVFR (visual) flights don’t require filing a flight plan.
- kashunstva 1y agoFor VFR (visual flight rules) flights in the U.S., a flight plan is not needed and many such flights are made without a flight plan. If a VFR flight is conducted without talking to anyone, to and from uncontrolled fields, then they would be squawking 1200, in which case the flight wouldn't be identified on Flight Aware. Unless there's some unique ID being transmitted by ADS-B...
- seemaze 1y agoI have a great story from my friend's father when we were kids in the western US. They lived at one of these residential airstrip developments, and owned a remote ranch about 60 min. away by air. The father was in the habit of commuting between his home and ranch at will. Flying home one day he found himself flanked by two fighter jets and escorted to the nearest commercial airport. He was hustled into the back of a black SUV and taken to his home where is family was gathered in the living room giving statements to a bunch of men in suits. Turns out the POTUS was is town for a visit, and my friends father had failed to read the temporary flight restriction advisory..
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> they would be squawking 1200, in which case the flight wouldn't be identified on Flight Aware My 1200 flights frequently show up on FlightAware, FYI.
- VincentEvans 1y agoWhile until recently I had to, in the name of flight safety, carefully pack my bags while consulting the sizes of shampoo containers allowed in the carry-on baggage, surrender my unapproved nail clippers, and with my shoes in hand and pants belt-less - stand in line to be x-rayed and patted down on my way to board a plane… … someone can without anyone ringing any alarm bells and not phasing the local law enforcement one bit - take off multiple times unnoticed and unidentified on a private plane, and, if they choose to, fly it straight into a freshly refueled jet that I am sitting in waiting to take off. Shhh, hope “terrorists” don’t read this comment. Or the article in LA Times.
- gbacon 1y ago*in the name of security theater General aviation, in the U.S. at least, runs largely on the honor system. To fly in controlled airspace these days, ADS-B out is required, and there are definitely records of where people go
- TylerE 1y agoThis is rather hysterical. "Alarm bells" - both metaphorical and physical - would absolutely be going off if a Cessna was not responding on radio and headed anywhere near an airport operating passenger jets. Corona Muni isn't LAX.
- filleduchaos 1y agoTo be fair, few people know anything about aviation other than being miffed at the grand inconvenience of obeying the rules of scheduled passenger flight services.
- VincentEvans 1y agoTo be accurate I am “miffed” at the blasé response of airport admin and local police. No “criminal negligence”, no “dereliction of duty”. Not even administrative punishment for utter incompetence at a primary job with rather serious potential consequences.
- m463 1y agoI read somewhere that a surprising number of car thefts are just for transportation across town
- daft_pink 1y agoThe person probably thinks it’s his own plane that’s flying it. Maybe they have a similar plane and simply thinks that plane is there own.
- ElectronShak 1y agoAre they barefoot?
- wheaties 1y agoSo a perfectly good plane that someone could enjoy and fly sits languishing at an airport because the owner, who now can't fly or doesn't want to, won't sell it? I get the attachment and all. However, if you know there's a finite number of these things then please sell it to someone who would use it. That's a golden age plane and it should be flown. Too bad many people would rather let something rot. Also, I don't support stealing a plane.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> because the owner, who now can't fly or doesn't want to, won't sell it It’s an airworthy 1958 Cessna for a reason. Planes like these don’t depreciate like cars, by time, but like engines: flight time is the principal determiner of deterioration. (For pressurised planes its pressure cycles.) The only thing being “wasted” here might be hangar space.
- Wingman4l7 1y agoKeep in mind that this isn't really equivalent, cost-wise, to the crime of taking a car for a joyride -- airplane engines have rigorous maintenance schedules that require expensive overhauls, and aviation gasoline looks to be over double the price of "car" gasoline (and the MPG for that Cessna is probably half that of a decent car).
- Fairburn 1y agoI am starting lessons here at EMT next week. My instructor's partner saw someone messing with this plane today. she drove up on the line to see if they needed help. she didnt know who they were. Her partner got a pic of the plane. Funny thing is my instructor is about my age.. so she kinda fit the desc. Now she's prefacing this news with, Im not her! lol Funny and madd3ning.
- tomcam 1y agoNot sure if I missed this in the story, but the second incident started with the owner removing the battery. It was replaced by the joyrider. Here's what I don't get. Presumably the incident happened in the middle of the night? Did the joyrider carry an extra battery? Or did they take notes, purchase a battery the next day, and install it that night?
- renewiltord 1y agoPeople think aviation is more regulated than it is. The Lodi parachutists should help alleviate that misconception
- manarth 1y agoThe flightpath suggests it overflew California Institute for Men at around 900m. The track doesn't start immediately from Saint Gabriel so it could have also overflown El Monte jail and West Covina jail. Good way to airdrop supplies? > https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N4182F/history/20250726/
- davidhyde 1y agoThe consensus appears to be that this is theft but it’s worth considering that it could also be many other things. It could be paperwork mixup with the purchase of a legitimate plane. The previous owner could have had his plane sold without him knowing about it (identity theft). There could be all sorts of reasons. The fact that the alleged is not hiding this newly acquired plane is a little strange to me.
- nemosaltat 1y agoI live at the top of a hill in Corona and I’m like 95% I’ve seen this plane. What a trip.