Stolen plane from Canada escorted by US fighters

[yogib37 3]

WAUSAU, Wis. – A man suspected of stealing a plane from Canada, flying erratically over three states and attracting U.S. fighter escorts was in custody Tuesday after landing on a rural Missouri road.

Adam Dylan Leon, 31, was arrested at a convenience store in Ellsinore, Mo., shortly after police said he landed the single-engine, four-seat Cessna to end a six-hour flight on Monday night.

The Missouri state trooper who arrested Leon said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the pilot told him he had hoped to be shot down.

"He made a statement that he was trying to commit suicide and he didn't have the courage to do it himself. And his idea was to fly the aircraft into the United States, where he would be shot down," Trooper Justin Watson said on ABC.

Watson said Leon apparently hitched a ride to a convenience store after landing on a highway and taxiing the plane to a side road. He didn't appear surprised when the officer entered the convenience store to arrest him.

Leon said "he didn't have any ID, but he was the person we were looking for," Watson said.

The plane was reported stolen Monday afternoon from Confederation College Flight School at Thunder Bay International Airport in Ontario. It was intercepted by F-16 fighters from the Wisconsin National Guard after crossing into the state near the Michigan border.

The pilot was flying erratically and didn't communicate with the fighter pilots, said Mike Kucharek, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado.

The pilot had acknowledged seeing the F-16s but he didn't obey their nonverbal commands to follow them, Kucharek said.

The approaching flight prompted a brief, precautionary evacuation of the Wisconsin capitol in Madison, although there were few workers in the building at the time and the governor was not in town.

The Cessna 172 continued south over Illinois and eastern Missouri before landing near Ellsinore, about 120 miles south-southwest of St. Louis.

The plane landed about six hours after the reported theft, and had enough fuel for about eight hours of flight, NAADC officials said.

"We tailed it all the way," Maj. Brian Markin said. "Once it landed our aircraft returned to base."

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told CNN that Leon was a native of Turkey who changed his name from Yavuz Berke and became a Canadian citizen last year.

___

AP writers Todd Richmond in Madison and James Carlson in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

[almaty 19]

i saw it on the local news..he ordred a coke and waited to be arrested..a chopf##k

[NickD 202]

Close to home, the Cessna 172 only carries 39 gallons of fuel with 2 of those unusable for an effective range at 7,000 ft of 595 miles a maximum economy or 4.6 hours. What got him that far south from Thunder Bay, is winds aloft of 30 knots from the north, north east. He had to be out of gas when he landed. If he cruised at 10,000 feet, 65% power, could have gone as long as 7 hours, but the distance would be very wind dependent. Airplanes fly in the air and not on the ground. Just making some corrections to that news report.

The way he was, not really much more threat than a Geo Metro, but could have been carrying as much as 800 pounds of high explosives, that would be a threat.

Gee, all he had to do was to go to the south side of Chicago and yell *** if he wanted to die and not give another bad name to aviation.

[justashooter 430]

so let's send canada the bill for the fuel and airframe time. 20 mm would have been cheaper, but we're "the nice guys".

[Peikko 1,575]

People who are depressed and seek suicide as a solution are always thinking extremely clearly obviously.