Posted on 10/13/2005 2:12:10 AM PDT by HAL9000
Excerpt -
Imagine taking a joyride with five friends — a fine trip, covering 400 or so miles, the sort of nighttime jaunt where the lights of towns and cities below twinkle like diamonds tossed across black velvet.Then imagine that trip coming to a rude conclusion when your five fellow travelers finger you as the guy who stole that ride, a $7 million Cessna Citation VII.
That's the situation facing Daniel Andrew Wolcott of Buford. Police arrested him Wednesday and charged him with taking the airplane, boosted from St. Augustine, Fla., last weekend and flown to Gwinnett County Airport/Briscoe Field.
Wolcott, 22, is facing five misdemeanor counts and one felony charge in Gwinnett for the alleged theft. He may face more, too: Federal officials and Florida authorities are considering filing charges.
Police said Wolcott has a commercial-rated pilot's license, but is not licensed to fly the Cessna, a sophisticated machine that can climb eight miles into the sky and exceed 500 mph.
Wolcott, said police spokesman Darren Moloney, "apparently is a talented and gifted pilot."
[snip]
With security breaches like this who needs hijackers?
I would like to see this guy's log book. Something about the whole story just doesn't make sense. Horrible article in that it gives precious little information. Just saying he has a 'commerical-rated pilot's license' does not tell the reader anything, other than the fact the writer is woefully ignorant of the world of aviation.
The more I think about it, the less I accept the story at face value. Unless he has time in this kind of aircraft, but you certainly won't know about that from reading the article, I would consider it highly unlikely that he was able to taxi the aircraft, take off, make the trip and then land at the other end. I would also like some more info on the damage to the wing.
Oh well, let's wait and see if someone with some writing talent and knowledge of the subject decides to cover the story.
how did they get home? how did they get out of the airport? how did the kid know what airport to fly into at that time of night?
I read another article that said the airport they landed at was unmanned at the time (smaller airports are after certain hours, usually after midnight).
how did the kid know what airport to fly into at that time of night?
Planes do have navigation radio stacks. I suspect this one probably even had a GPS receiver in it as well.
Bloggers are slowly taking over the media and there will soon be no more traditional newspapers at all. We will soon be filtering our own news through proven bloggers onto portable devices.
When you're young, stupid, have a pilot's license and no brains, you can do just about anything at least once. At the time, five or six guys sitting around a table at TGIFridays, bragging about what could be done, it may have seemed like something "cool" to do. I thank god every day that the Army had a hold of my britches when I was that age.
You would have thought he would have at least returned the plane.
Ya know, I'll bet that was the plan (I use the word 'plan' loosely). He was probably lucky and glad to get it on the ground and that's when the 'plan' changed.
Yes, come to think of it he bonged up a wing, probably didn't want to chance getting it back in the air that way.
First, they were on the ground and wishing they were in the air.
Second, they were in the air and wishing they were on the ground.
There was no third act except to figure out how to get back to Florida.
Facing five misdemeanor counts?? The one felony charge is in GA. Pathetic article. Surely he will be put UNDER the jail for this one.
Before he goes to jail he should be allowed to go to Savannah
and have his picture taken on a park bench. He could caption it,
"Stupid is as stupid does!"
It would look nice on his cell wall.
I worked for a major daily newspaper and was appalled at the ignorance of the reporters. Even worse was their refusal to learn anything that would help them write a better article. One of the higher up editors was a pilot and made a big deal about his love of flying and all his time and experience but every article that dealt with aviation had at least one, usually several, glaring errors that should have driven him up the wall.
Much of what ails newsrooms these days is a fixation on PC that results in far more effort being made to be 'diverse' and PC than to write a good article. So many of the outlets are owned by huge conglomerates that the time and energy needed to handle the corporate environment leaves little time for journalism.
Yeah, and they kept me in the field most of the time until I grew a few more brain cells.
Still did enough stupid stuff to fill a book when I was off duty.
IMO, all of this is a reflection of the failure of our schools. Kids are not learning proper English and they are definitely not learning proper writing skills. But I am not proposing bigger and more expensive schools. That is NOT the answer. You can only teach a child that WANTS to learn. The ones who don't care and won't try are dragging the whole system down with them.
ping
On the other hand just the cost of the fuel burned on a four hour flight should make it a felony theft.
And fuel, I imagine, limited their return to Florida.
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