I just had to post this. Some folks in Fort Payne, Ala., learned a hard lesson last week -- if you surround your airport with a security fence but then leave the gate unlocked, well, you have not secured the field. A 14-year-old boy, driving a van he allegedly stole from his grandmother, arrived at the airport late last Wednesday night, apparently found the gate open, and went looking around. He came across a Cessna 152 unlocked with the key inside, and started it up. He told police later that he had no prior flight experience but was "driving around" in the airplane when he inadvertently found himself airborne. He landed once and took off again, this time flying a bit farther from the airport.
...As The Unexpected Proves Inevitable... <http://www.avweb.com/newspics/fence.jpg> On his second landing, he landed hard, gave it some throttle to avoid the fence, then came down on the road outside the airport. The aircraft was damaged and the boy suffered minor cuts and bruises. Altogether his flight lasted less than half an hour. "It's a miracle the boy wasn't killed or someone else wasn't hurt or killed or that we didn't have significant property damage from the plane crashing somewhere else," Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan told the Times-Journal. "The last thing you think about is a 14-year-old stealing a plane from the airport." Airport manager Larry Noble Cowart told The Associated Press, "We've never had a problem before with planes being stolen, so I guess we have been a little lax in our security." The boy was taken to a juvenile detention facility by authorities, charged with stealing the Cessna.
