Stolen Charter Jet Baffles Police

11 Alive - WXIA, Atlanta ^ | October 11, 2005 | Elaine Reyes / Tracey Christensen

[LurkedLongEnough]

The discovery of a stolen, $7 million private charter jet at Briscoe Field in Gwinnett County has left investigators baffled as to why it was taken and who might have piloted it to Georgia.

"Someone really knew what they were doing in order to fly this so, again, there's nothing to indicate any type of sinister overtones but the fact is someone highly trained did take this airplane," said Officer Darren Moloney of the Gwinnett Police Department.

Several of the department's detectives returned to Briscoe Field on Tuesday and scoured the 10-passenger plane's interior. They reported finding no drugs or weapons, but the front end of one of the plane's wings was damaged.

The jet was flown out of St. Augustine, Fla., and arrived at Briscoe Field sometime between late Saturday night into Sunday morning, police said. When it landed, the control tower was closed at Georgia's fifth-busiest airport. The jet was discovered by airport authorities on Monday.

"This is the first time it's ever occurred in my career and it's such an unusual thing," said airport director Matt Smith. "It's not like hot wiring a car or something like that where any 16-year-old would know how to do it. You need some specialized training to be able to take off and land and start that airplane and all those kind of things."

Detectives hoped to find out more about the flight from the plane's navigational equipment. The plane is owned by Pinnacle Air of Springdale, Ark., but was in St. Augustine after a charter flight to await its next dispatch.

Representatives of the company arrived at Briscoe Field Tuesday and asked police for permission take the jet back to Arkansas.

[LurkedLongEnough]

[A. Goodwin]

Remember that kid in New York a few years ago who kept stealing trains? Maybe his facination with transportation has diversified...

[MineralMan]

Drugs.

[Moose4]

For your pinglist. I can't tell what type that is from the picture...Lear? Or a Beech 400?

}:-)4

[LurkedLongEnough]

Or - drugs and thugs.

[devane617]

I think this is the third time I have seen this post today...

[narby]

I heard a story when I was in the Air Force about some crew chief in the 60's with a bit of knowledge of how to fly who stole an F-100. This was maybe 10 years before I was stationed at that base so I don't know the veracity of the story.

Supposedly he was shot down.

A year before I attended school there, A guy in Shawnee Oklahoma stole a Cessna 150 sometime around 1972 and buzzed the students on Oklahoma Baptist University campus for an hour before he flew into a building at the school and killed himself. I talked with people who saw the incident and he was supposedly flying 2 or 3 feet off the ground over the sidewalks where people were. They all apparently ducked low enough.

Cars get stolen, trucks get stolen, sometimes airplanes get stolen. When someone steals a 757 from DFW (they sit unattended during the night hours pushed 100 yards away from the gates and any human) let me know.

[dead]

My father was in a bar in Manhattan in the fifties with his friends. There was a drunk guy there who was insisting that he was a pilot, but they just made fun of him.

He left the bar for a couple of hours, then walked back in and told them to follow him outside. There was a Cessna parked outside the bar.

He had driven over the George Washington Bridge to the Teterboro NJ airport, stole the plane, and landed it on St. Nicholas Avenue, then taxied over to 190th Street.

He was arrested a few minutes later, but he proved his bona fides as a pilot.

[middie]

That stolen F-100 story is an urban myth. There have been NCO flight line guys with a taxi and run-up certificate who've given in to the temptation to take flight; some may have had a private ticket and thought they could fly anything with wings. But they've all come back down in one piece; some may have bent the airplane and little never again to get near the flight line and usually with a court martial.

[DogBarkTree]

I didnt know Rove was a pilot.

[carl in alaska]

My theory: someone involved in drugs in Arkansas got incredibly scared about a perceived threat, then stole a jet and took off for Atlanta at near-supersonic speed.

[carl in alaska]

Cocaine tends to make people paranoid, so that may have played a role in this too.

[doodad]

It was a Cessna Citation 650.

[FeliciaCat]

Is that a true story?

[narby]

There have been NCO flight line guys with a taxi and run-up certificate who've given in to the temptation to take flight

Now that you mention it, I seem to remember a C-130 incident like that. The guy wanted to go home real bad and stole it trying to get home? Some story like that from the 80's I think.

I had a commercial ticket when I was an F-4 crew chief. They never let me have a run-up license. Maybe that's why.

[dead]

Yes. It's true. My father told it for years, but only after the internet came into being could we confirm his tale.

Here's a picture of the plane on the street:

And an article that a Freeper found for me when I previously mentioned the story:

Aircraft Mechanic Lands ‘Borrowed’ Plane in Street

My father has a lot of strange tales.

[middie]

Maybe---

[F15Eagle]

You need some specialized training to be able to take off and land and start that airplane and all those kind of things

Maybe ... it ... was ... a ... PILOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ahem!)

[dead]

Hmmmmm... an interesting theory... have you contacted the FBI? 8-)

[F15Eagle]

LOL - reminds me of a university a few years ago where there was an arson event.

So (this is no joke) the campus newspaper interviews a psych professor who says "my gut feeling is that it is a male that has something against the university"

When I read that I was like, "GEE, YA THINK?"

LOL

[PAR35]

Here's one of the previous postings.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1500486/posts

[monday]

"Maybe ... it ... was ... a ... PILOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ahem!)"

lol.... yeah... I was thinking it was probably a pilot who wanted to go to Georgia and didn't want have the money for a commercial ticket when I read the headline, but the conspiracy musings of FReepers is much more entertaining.

[FreePaul]

It's a good thing he didn't fly the plane to a crowded stadium to crash it. But then that's why we have Homeland Security. Well, maybe next time they'll get involved. In the meantime keep up those searches of old women and children boarding commercial flights.

[F15Eagle]

LOL, he must have been dang lucky it had enough fuel to go where he wanted to go. Or did it? And I would have to guess stealing a fuel truck would be rather easy, but boy would this be a confident (so to speak) person.

[rawhide]

The important thing was the guy was not a liar. A thief maybe, but a liar, nyet!
Still that had to be the talk of town back then, and I have to give the guy a little grudging respect for what he did and how.

[LibWhacker]

Then there was this guy.

[ladyinred]

Joy Fliers?

[Larry Lucido]

They actually drew a chalk outline?? Was it murdered too?

[Steve_Seattle]

"Someone really knew what they were doing in order to fly this so, again, there's nothing to indicate any type of sinister overtones but the fact is someone highly trained did take this airplane," said Officer Darren Moloney of the Gwinnett Police Department."

The person knew what they were doing, so there's no sinister overtones? Huh? I'm glad it's just "Officer Maloney" and not "Chief Maloney."

[F15Eagle]

As Seinfeld says, "It seems to me the best job in the police department is 'chalk-outline-guy'. You show up after everything is over and they ask 'Do you think you could just sorta trace around that?'"

[Larry Lucido]

LOL! I thought about that too! Guess there weren't enough murders and they needed to keep chalk-outline guy busy. :-)

[F15Eagle]

I hadn't noticed they traced around the plane until you said something. That was great. I'm guessing he got a parking ticket too. The wing clearly is not inside the parking space. I guess the moral of the story is, if you're gonna steal an airplane and land it in the street, grab one with folding wings. Unfortunately the F-18 won't fit either!

[LurkedLongEnough]

My apologies for what looks to be a duplicate post. I guess a simple search on "jet" would have done it.
:(

Thanks for the link.

[MotleyGirl70]

Here's a picture of the plane on the street:

As Seinfeld says, "It seems to me the best job in the police department is 'chalk-outline-guy'. You show up after everything is over and they ask 'Do you think you could just sorta trace around that?'"

LOL! I thought about that too! Guess there weren't enough murders and they needed to keep chalk-outline guy busy. :-)

OMG! Stomach pains of laughter.

MG70 only posts The Laughing Kitty when she cries tears of laughter; this is one of those times.

[Rockpile]

ALL RIGHT !!!

WHOSE TURN WAS IT TO WATCH PUKIN' DOG ????

[Rockpile]

Back in '69 or '70 the ENGLISH police brought a crewchief back to RAF Mildenhall for drunk and disorderly early in the AM. The MPS took him to his barracks. Right around dawn he went down to the flightline and cranked up his C130 and took her out on the runway. Tower commanded the MPs to block runway with their pickup. He started takeoff roll and MPs hauledass out of way. Drunk guy decides he's going back to USA being tired of British scene and all. Not enough fuel to make trip and plane and now dead guy ended up in the ocean. Air defences and all were going spastic all over Britain when it happened. Did he get shot down? I don't know; got all this from my dad.

Dad also claimed that a guy took a B45 Tornado from Sculthope--I think-- in early 50s and tried to kamikaze into British girlfriends house but missed.

At least that's how I remember tale from back then.

[F15Eagle]

I wonder if I should go to that airport and do a chalk outline around that jet? Tracing is about as good as I got in art class (if you don't count paint by numbers! LOL)

[F15Eagle]

If Pukin Dog had stole the plane he would have been looking for a furball with any jet with a red star. He also would have been instinctively inclined to put the plane down on a floating piece of steel somewhere.

8)

[GladesGuru]

That pilot your father talked about sounds like Bugs Thompson. If your father is alive, ask him - Bugs was the pilot in the Great Airplane Bank Robbery, so I'd put nothing past him.

But he certainly could fly like an angel.

[Rockpile]

Well, it was nighttime so maybe he didn't find a handy carrier or barge or something ;<}

[Rockpile]

Re post 27---

Was the horse flying the thing?

[F15Eagle]

I'll bet he coulda put it down on the Love Boat with some guy using ping pong paddles and grabbing the tennis net as the 3rd wire.

The deck chairs mighta needed replacing though.

8)

[Larry Lucido]

When I was on the force, they didn't trust me with chalk. I was "Police Line Do Not Cross" tape guy. Problem was I'd tie the tape to the captain's bumper and he'd drive off with the whole crime scene. He wasn't amused.

Later on I got promoted to "Move along, there's nothing to see here" bullhorn guy.

[Larry Lucido]

Speaking of parking, one of the funniest scenes in the movie "Hot Shots" was where the pilot parks his plane in a handicapped slot, and the dude in the wheelchair starts yelling "Have you no decency!"

Lloyd Bridges, RIP

[F15Eagle]

Bullhorn-guy could be good. Remember the bullhorn-guy in The Naked Gun while people are looking at the floating outline?

[Old Student]

"Back in '69 or '70 the ENGLISH police brought a crewchief back to RAF Mildenhall for drunk and disorderly early in the AM. The MPS took him to his barracks. Right around dawn he went down to the flightline and cranked up his C130 and took her out on the runway. Tower commanded the MPs to block runway with their pickup. He started takeoff roll and MPs hauledass out of way. Drunk guy decides he's going back to USA being tired of British scene and all. Not enough fuel to make trip and plane and now dead guy ended up in the ocean. Air defences and all were going spastic all over Britain when it happened. Did he get shot down? I don't know; got all this from my dad."

When I was a crew chief at Cannon AFB, 1974-1975, several of our guys had been at RAF Lakenheath, among other places. One of them told me of the guy who took the C-130. He says it was shot down after it passed the point of no-return for fuel. Proves nothing, of course, but that's the story as I remember it, anyway.

[FeliciaCat]

Very cool! Thanks!

[dead]

No, the guys name was Thomas Fitzpatrick, though my father didn't know his name until I sent him that article I linked above.

He never met the pilot before that night, and never saw him again after that. I don't know how much trouble the guy got in. I don't know if the owners of the plane pressed charges.