Jet Stolen From Fla. Winds Up Near Atlanta

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/oct/11/101106827.html

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - A 10-passenger charter jet that was reported stolen from St. Augustine, Fla., was found at an airport near Atlanta, and authorities were attempting to figure out who had flown it there.

The plane, a $7 million Cessna Citation 7, was found at the Gwinnett County Airport-Briscoe Field on Monday and remained there Tuesday morning, said Darren Moloney, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Police Department. The plane is owned by Pinnacle Air of Springdale, Ark., which had no comment on the incident Tuesday.

Crime scene technicians have investigated the interior of the plane, and Moloney said there is no evidence that there were weapons or drugs on it.

"We've ruled out anything diabolical or sinister," he said. "We didn't find anything threatening on the plane."

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[Dora]

1. Joyride! n/t

[KansDem]

10. Yeah, but how do you hotwire a Cessna jet?

...and was the radio taken?

[Shadder]

2. I know that airport well

My son does his Young Eagle rides out of Brisco.

[napi21]

3. Gee, are both of these airfields unmaned?

I don't live that far from the Gwinnett Cty Ap, but I've never been there. I know the Gainesville Ga. AP is usually busy enough during the day, someone would know who landed this plane, but at night, it's mostly deserted.

I know I would be really pissed if I was Pinnacle Air, but I had to chuckle a little at hearing that someone took a $7MM jet for a joy ride!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. They should have pilot's voice on air traffic control radio recorded.

Good thing it wasn't found embedded in the side of a building.

Bad enough that it could be stolen, but it sounds like they didn't know it was stolen until it after it had landed, otherwise a nationwide alert would have occurred and it would have been noticed landing.

[jpak]

6. Exactly

Bloomberg gets his panties in a bunch about hoax terra claims boosted by I-raqi insurgents, while *large* stolen jets fly undetected near one of America's busiest air hubs.

Makes ya' wonda'...

[toopers]

5. Interesting . . .

How may charter jets are sitting on the tarmac with enough fuel in them to fly 500 miles. And then, how do you fly into the airspace of the world's busiest airport (Hartsfield) without the air traffic controller putting up an alert?

[Dr.Phool]

7. I'd have to check an aeronautical chart

But, if the pilot is flying under visual flight rules, and stays out of controled airspace, he doesn't have to talk to anyone. I'm assuming both airports are uncontrolled.

[ladjf]

8. Brisco field is a controlled airfield. However, if a plane is beneath

the TCA altitude at Brisco (I believe 3,000 ft) it would not be necessary to contact Atlanta Approach. Still the voice of someone on the stolen jet would be routinely recorded by Brisco tower.

[toopers]

13. I am sure you're right . . .

but he was within 20 miles of the Hartsfield airport. I gotta believe he appeared on radar and the time was documented. Though, I don't know much about the flying rules. He probably did not enter into any conflicting flight pattern with the commercial jets. I do know that it was very cloudy and a relatively low ceiling on Saturday/sunday. I went to an air show just south of Atlanta on Sunday and all the acts were performing low ceiling stunts so that the crowd could see everything.

[jsamuel]

9. wow... they had to know how to fly a jet too

[Dr.Phool]

11. Even better, They had to know how to land it!

[zbdent]

12. Well, we know it wasn't a Dem

it wasn't "crashed" . . .

Check for the stench of "campaign contributions" . . .

[DURHAM D]

14. This is a stupid question but, do

airplanes require keys to start them up ?

[Dr.Phool]

16. No, but the doors are usually locked.

[global1]

15. Why Wasn't It Shot Down?.....

Given 9/11 - this plane should have been shot down. There should have been a Red Alert. Why haven't we heard anything about this in the MSM?

Where was *? Was he informed? Was he reading "My Pet Goat"?

What's going on? Something smells here. Any additional info?

[Dr.Phool]

17. If he was flying VFR

Under visual Flight Rules, his only requirement was to set his transponder to 1200. That's all he appeared as on a controllers screen. A VFR flight. No flight plans needed. As long as he stayed out of controlled airspace, he was perfectly legal. Other than the stolen plane.

[Jose Diablo]

18. Back in the early 90's the owner of the General Aviation

company at Briscoe used to take-off and land at this airport. This was before the longer runway was put-in. I think the old runway is only 3500 feet, if I remember right. Watching a Citation II land on 3500 feet of runway is something to see. Not only that, but the runway is not completely level, it slopes up from east to west with a slight hump about half-way down the runway, so landing to the east gives a longer runout. It was strange to land at this airport.

Unlike today, the airport was uncontrolled so any night landing you used the unicom freq to 'key' the lights on. I imagine it's still like this with the runway lights when the tower closes at 9:00PM.

As far as controlled airspace, its outside the TCA, however there is a victor highway slightly to the north the heavies use on approaching from the northeast into Hartfield. But below that its uncontrolled so no need to contact anybody, except the tower when its open.

The owner in addition to the General Aviation company and cable company in Lawrenceville also owned a cable company in Britian, so he was coming in/out of Briscoe quite a lot. There was something that happened in the mid 90's that required him to sell the General Aviation contract at Briscoe. Forgot what it was though. At that time, there was little money to be made at Briscoe, before the longer runway was put in and many more corporate jets started using Briscoe. At that time most corporation jets used Peachtree just inside the NE perimeter so money was tight at Briscoe.

This story about someone boosting a jet in Florida and flying it into metro Atlanta is strange. No drugs or weapons, why do it? Where is the profit, who benefits? Makes no sense.

[Karmakaze]

19. Stolen? Or Extraordinary Rendition?

Perhaps the CIA needed a non-traceable aircraft for some reason? A quick trip to Venezuela perhaps?