| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Man nabbed after plane chased by F-16s |
| 2009-04-07 |
| WAUSAU, Wis. — A man suspected of stealing a plane in Canada and flying erratically across three states was trying to commit suicide, hoping he would be shot down by military fighter planes, a state trooper said Tuesday. Suicide by F-16? That's different. Adam Dylan Leon, 31, was arrested at a convenience store in Ellsinore, Mo., shortly after landing the single-engine, four-seat Cessna on a rural Missouri road Monday night, ending a six-hour flight, police said. The plane was tracked as a “flight safety issue” and was not believed to be a terrorist threat, Mike Kucharek, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs. 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 the 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. He said Leon “gave me no indication that it was anything other than he was having personal problems and was in an attempt to end his life. He did state that he thought at one time he was getting shot down, but apparently the Air Force were just shooting flares,” the trooper said. Leon was in the Butler County Jail on Tuesday in Poplar Bluff, Mo. 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 state line. The pilot was flying erratically and didn’t communicate with the fighter pilots, Kucharek said at the Aerospace Defense Command. The pilot acknowledged seeing the F-16s but didn’t obey their nonverbal commands to follow them, Kucharek said. The plane’s path over Wisconsin 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. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #9 And THAT is why he should have been smoked at the earliest possible opportunity. After all, they might be able to shoot him down if he heads for something like a mall, but what's suspicious about approaching an airport? I'd hate to have to be the person that makes that call. Is he landing or going to crash into the terminal? |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-04-07 20:56 |
| #8 At least now the Jihadis know they don't need to bother getting by TSA security, they can just Hijack Canadian planes instead. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-04-07 20:51 |
| #7 I wonder if this guy didn't run out of fuel? The range on a Cessna 172 is around 610 nautical miles. The distance from Thunder Bay to Poplar Bluff is given as 700 nautical miles. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-04-07 20:20 |
| #6 “The plane was tracked as a "flight safety issue" and was not believed to be a terrorist threat…” Hmmm…there were still F-16’s over the big lake long after he hit Wisconsin airspace. I suspect, no matter what NORAD says they weren’t taking any chances. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2009-04-07 20:06 |
| #5 Like towing an anti-O banner? |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-04-07 17:46 |
| #4 "Can you imagine the headlines and the Daily Kos if the AF had shot the dummy down and the plane had crashed into a kitten farm?" Also, why punish the innocent plane, and the flight school, if it's not necessary? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-04-07 16:30 |
| #3 They tailed it and made sure they could intervene if the pilot did something stupid like aim himself towards a sensitive location. There was no need to shoot him down otherwise. Can you imagine the headlines and the Daily Kos if the AF had shot the dummy down and the plane had crashed into a kitten farm? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-04-07 16:11 |
| #2 Do us a favor next time Adam/Yavuz. Tie yourself to the Trans Canada Railway tracks. It's a very Canadian way to go. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-04-07 15:25 |
| #1 They let a unknown cessna piloted by a Citizen of Turkey, a muslim country, go unmolested for hours? And simply tailed it after an evac of Madison, even though he purposely ignored their commands? Am I the only one who thinks he should have been shot down the moment he acknowledged but ignored them? |
| Posted by: Charles 2009-04-07 11:42 |