Happy Belated Birthday to Southern California resident Jason Hong, who celebrated 75 years young on July 28. Only instead of receiving the present he wanted — a visit with his 1958 Cessna Skyhawk plane that resides at Corona Municipal Airport — his gift was taken away, as upon arrival at the airport, the plane was not there. An entire private vintage plane, and no one could account for its whereabouts. Hong filed a missing plane report with local police, and the next day a different city’s police department called in that the plane had been found… 23 miles away at Brackett Field Airport. A lucky turn up! So Hong made arrangements for his plane to stay at Brackett until he could return to inspect it properly for whatever happened during its unexpected departure. And for good measure, Hong removed the battery. But guess what was missing when he returned five days later? The plane, again! Until a third police department tracked it down to a third airport:
[Hong] soon got a call from El Monte Police, who told him his plane was sitting at San Gabriel Valley Airport — which is about 18 miles west of where he had left it. Stranger still, whoever had stolen the plane had replaced the battery, which would have cost them hundreds of dollars.
Hong looked up his plane on the tracking website Flight Aware and was able to confirm that it had been in the air several times in July.
Hong — who has since chained his plane at San Gabriel Valley Airport as he waits to inspect it — told the L.A. Ties that he is still trying to make sense of what happened.
“Someone breaks into your house, they’re looking for jewelry or cash, right?” he said. “But in this case, what’s the purpose? It’s like someone breaks my window, and then they put a new one up.”
Hong also said that he reasons whoever has been stealing his plane must have flight training — because “landing is not easy” — as well as knowledge of plane mechanics, because they knew what type of battery the plane needed and were also able to install it.
So far, the only potential clue comes from a regular at the San Gabriel Valley Airport who told Hong that he saw a petite, middle-aged woman sitting in the cockpit on several occasions. The man said that the incident stood out because he wondered why the woman would opt to sit in the plane on a hot day instead of in the air-conditioned airport.
Authorities also remain mystified.
“This plane just keeps disappearing out of the blue,” Sgt. Robert Montanez of the Corona Police Department told the L.A. Times. “It’s just weird.”
He added, “There’s no camera video, there’s no real leads as to who stole the plane.”
I’m no aviator, nor do I have the funds to own a vintage plane and pay for it to stay at an airport where I occasionally visit it. But I have parked a car in a lot, and had to provide a ticket at the end in order to collect the vehicle and exit the premises. Whether it was by human or by toll with an automated gate, I was not permitted to leave until the ticket had been procured and payment made. Surely there must be some similar kind of check out procedure in place for a private plane?!! At the bare minimum, a list of people authorized to have access and/or fly the plane? Plus, if someone — allegedly this petite woman, who upon legal counsel I can neither confirm or deny is me — snuck out with the plane unlawfully, isn’t an airplane a rather large item to abscond with??
And speaking of the suspect, I envy her for apparently having the time and money to play hide-and-go-seek with someone else’s plane. Not to mention the energy! While I don’t condone crime in any way shape or form (really, I don’t!), there are elements of this serial aero heist that are tickling my funny bone. Namely, the randomness of it, coupled with the net-zero gain (or negative really, factoring in the cost of the new battery) for the criminal. It’s reminding me of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ghost who wasn’t out to spook him, but to tidy up the house. Unlike Mr. Hong and the (various) police departments, I don’t EVER want this mystery explained! (Though I know I’ll end up watching the future Netflix documentary.)
So here’s your free PSA for the week, bitches: make sure you’ve stored your private planes securely!!
Did Mr. Plane Owner do someone wrong? This is some next level Houdini shenanigans.
Just AirTag the plane.
Use video cameras for heaven’s sake.
I like how he didn’t care to get into who stole it the first time, just went with a ‘what are people like lol yeah i’ll come collect it’. but also how does it work for air traffic controlling of small planes? surely someone had to see them taking off or landing. or are small airports not staffed 24 hours? so many questions. but I like this silly story, a nice respite from the world burning down around our ears.
As I understand it (not a pilot, just friends with some) smaller airports, in particular those who don’t take jets, don’t have ATC on hand at all. It’s automated, more or less.
Anyone with the keys to the plane (or the ability to look like they have them) can walk up, hop in the plane, and take off.
Can confirm the smaller airports having no regular staff at all times part. I mean the kind of airport that only accommodates 8-seater planes & the waiting area is an open shed.
I appreciate small, pointless and yet strangely uplifting (sorry!) acts of transgression like this one.
I don’t know what security measures are in place in the world of small private air travel, but it’s not that surprising that it’s seemingly pretty lax? We have a friend who recently retired and decided to get his pilot’s license. He is 79 years old. He’s in good health and seems perfectly sharp, but I was still surprised that they are just allowing this? I would think at a certain age they would be just be like “um, no, you really don’t need to be doing this just for fun.” But nope. He might be out there flying right now. This is in New York State.
Yikes!
1. There’s a small private airstrip at the end of my street. It’s pretty casual.
2. This is a plot for a novel – paging Jincy Willett!
You are not wrong, Kismet, this is randomly very funny to me, too (and exactly the kind of news story my brain can handle atm!)
I am very much here for low-stakes criminal mysteries.
My in laws own and fly a small plane. It’s their retirement hobby. I briefly hoped this story involved my MiL, who is a conservative woman but still has a decent sense of humor. Sadly, wrong state.
I think we need Miss Marple on the case. Or Jessica Fletcher, ’cause there’s definitely something afoot!