Passengers tattle on pilot after ride in stolen jet

Atlanta Journal-Constitution (excerpt) ^ | October 13, 2005

[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]

[leadpenny]

The Army didn't completely straighten my out. In the early 70s I was in an Air Cav Squadron at Fort Knox. Once a pilot passed his Standard Instrument ride he could take a Huey for a weekend. I ran the program and I had just past a fellow from Michigan. My home state also. Off we go. I dropped him off near Lansing and I flew to Hillsdale single pilot (illegal). First I buzzed my classmates at the lake where the 10th year HS reunion was going on and then I landed at my moms property where my brother had a makeshift "H" in the grass. Of course he had invited all the neighbors. I remember thinking, "am I nuts?" as I visualized a destroyed career. Here but for the grace of . . . I didn't break anything or get arrested.

A few weeks later a friend of mine took a Huey to the Detroit area and decided to put it down on an elementary school yard near his home. School was in session and the police arrested him. The squadron commander put an end to the policy of rewarding those who got their intrument tickets.

[GnL]

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

[jwpjr]

I lived in Enterprise, AL, in 1965 and worked for the radio station there, WIRB. I still remember how you could go outside absolutely any time of the day or night and see a variety of aircraft from Ft. Rucker. Our neighbors on both side of us were rotary wing instructors at Rucker. I remember driving down to Elba or New Brockton and how you could round a curve and see a twin-engine fixed wing landing in a very small field as they practiced their short field take offs and landings.

I was a bit too old for the war, and had three children by then, but have always thought I would have joined if I could have been assured of getting into helicopter piloting.

My son is a helicopter pilot for the sheriff's office in Naples, FL. He has the best job in all the world! Boy do I envy him.

[cynicom]

The young man may well not have been type rated, that does not preclude him from not having logged time in that type aircraft. When times were less strict, a friend of mine flew for thirty years and never had a license.

[son of caesar]

how right you are. btw, a similar thing happened to a friend of mine in high school. his father was a real airline pilot, so by 15 or so this guy had his own pilots license. so what did he do? he goes to the airport and steals a plane, no kidding. it was a cessna however. police copters chased him for about an hour, he just kept circling our city. i would post his name, but i think all should be forgiven a transgression or two in the right circumstances. btw, all of us in the high school thought he was the biggest dork until he did this silly thing.

[beezdotcom]

And fuel, I imagine, limited their return to Florida.

Well, they were able to land at an unattended field in Florida...would they have enjoyed the same advantage upon returning HOME with the plane?

[MarkL]

I think that this should read, " Wolcott, said police spokesman Darren Moloney, "apparently is a talented and gifted former pilot."

Somehow, I don't think that the FAA will be letting Wolcott keep his license or commercial rating, after having stolen a plane that he wasn't qualified on.

Mark

[cynicom]

I spent my career with military/FAA...Saw a lot of good pilots, saw a lot of bad pilots, from student to ATR.

There is a transcript of an American airline crash in South America that is available on the internet. On the cockpit recorder they are discussing the fact that neither has a clue as to where they. It is night and then they violate a basic rule, they did not climb to MEA, flew it into a mountain.

Both had many thousands of hours.

[DCPatriot]

I'd have to give the passengers credit for stupidity for even getting on the jet with the "kid".

Remember, it's not the plane going down that kills you...it's the impact.

[painter]

I remember landing my Aeronca 7AC in my girlfriend's front yard!

Is that a little 2 passenger tube and fabric plane with a 60hp continental?

[megatherium]

I think it was Mark Twain who said that a reporter could do research in the library and investigate, or he could simply repeat what people told him -- but both approaches pay the same.

[painter]

Did he lose his license?

[grjr21]

I'd also like to see his logbook ,but meanwhile here's a little more.


Airmen Database Search Result


Name : WOLCOTT, DANIEL ANDREW
Airman's Address : 1750 HUNTINGTON HILL TRCE
BUFORD, GA, 30519-7120
FAA Region : Southern
Date of Medical : Aug, 2004
Class of Medical : 2
Expiration of Class 2 : Aug, 2005
Airman Certificates : Commercial Pilot
Airplane Single and Multi Engine Land
Instrument Airplane

[TalBlack]

This exchange reminds me of a story about Kris Kristofferson(being in the military DIDN'T help him).

He was, IIRC a Captain in some branch that had access to some large helicopter. He took one and landed it in Johnny Cash's yard hoping to get Cash to listen to some of Kristofferson's songs. his music. Johnny Cash told this story somewhere or other.

Kristofferson was also a Rhodes Scholar if you can believe it.

[TalBlack]

"Both had many thousands of hours."

Geez, hoe about that clown on the taxi way at Tenirife who simply decided, in a heavy fog, that it was HIS turn to take off and the hell with the tower and the flight on the runway at the time? Hours? In the end experience can't help the stupid.

[monday]

"Surely he will be put UNDER the jail for this one."

In the basement? What the hell does UNDER the jail mean?

[B4Ranch]

It means there will be concrete above you and you'll never get out.

[monday]

Ridiculous. It's not like he hijacked the plane, he took it for a joy ride. I would be surprised if he does any jail time. If it's his first offense he will likely get probation and community service.

[SamAdams76]

There is just not much legwork being done by reporters anymore. If they need to research a subject, they'll just do a Google search from their laptops and cut and paste into the article the same old cliches. What really aggravates me about most daily newspapers is that their news stories ignore the golden rule of journalism (explain the who, what, where and why). Their stories usually lack one of those components and so you rarely get the complete story. They usually eliminate one of these components on purpose so that they can lend some sensationalism to the article. For example, there was a Page One barnburner here in Boston on how inmates in state prisons were being treated to the "circus," clowns and all. The article led the reader to believe that clowns were going around to the prisons and performing for their entertainment.

It turned out that there was a Christian group going around to the prisons to try to convert them to Christianity and clowns were a very minor part of what they were doing. In fact, it appears that actual circus clowns were never involved at all.

But reporters are always looking for something sensational and they try not to let facts get in the way of a good story that might get their article featured on the front page.

I remember my last interaction with a newspaper reporter. We were "Freeping" Bill Clinton here in Boston back around the 1998 timeframe. A reporter was sent out to "cover" our protest. We met him at a downtown bar where he was having a beer. He asked us a few rote questions and to my knowledge, he never came out out of that bar at all to see us in action. The next day, were were mentioned in just a few perfunctory sentences in the article concerning Clinton's visit and we were passed off as a small minority of rabblerousers. Your basic mainstream media hackjob.

[jwpjr]

re: Expiration of Class 2 : Aug, 2005

Uh oh! He's in big trouble now! His medical had expired! Bet he wasn't up to date on his biennial (or annual as the case might be) flight review either. Boy, what a scofflaw!