Interestingly, airplanes can also get repossessed. Special pilots get all the legal paperwork arranged and just show up and fly a plane out.
I suppose the high skill needed means that most pilots wouldn't want to steal airplanes, and it would not make sense to steal any airplane that needs special support from the manufacturer (the new owner can't keep it flying). Cars are much lower skill to steal and maintain and have a much broader market.
Very bizarre. To fly a plane out, won't the pilot of the plane have to speak with ATC? I wonder if letting the ATC (of the municipal airport) be informed that this plane tends to be flown by someone who might not be authorized might help?
wildzzz · 17m ago
Unless you're inside a place with special flight rules (like the Washington DC area), you can just fly your plane whenever you want and don't have to file a flight plan or tell anyone. Small airports often don't have ATC so all communications are on a single frequency that all pilots trying to take off or land are tuned into. It's like being at a four way stop sign, there's "right of way" protocol to follow so you don't need to do much other than just announce your intentions to anyone that cares to hear them.
Really the only way to handle this is to put your plane in a locked hanger or chain it to the ground with a lock and then pay for whatever flight tracker that will alert you whenever a specific tail number is in the air. Follow it and then call whatever local police when it lands.
JCBird1012 · 28m ago
It depends on the airport! Some smaller airports (like Corona Municipal Airport where the story is based) - are untowered, meaning that there's no central ATC to chat with when taking off/landing - everyone announces what they're doing as they're doing it and there's a traffic pattern/flow that everyone follows to ensure there's no conflicts - it works surprisingly well.
In the US, you can get shockingly very far without having to chat with ATC.
My cars been stolen twice and both times, given the type of car, where it was stolen, and where it was abandoned the cops said it was most likely stolen to conduct a drug deal and then ditched
Seems plausible that something like that may be going on here
hasnd · 39m ago
Is it a rhetorical question or is the guy that daft?
https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/l4k9he/douglas_ad...
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Interestingly, airplanes can also get repossessed. Special pilots get all the legal paperwork arranged and just show up and fly a plane out.
I suppose the high skill needed means that most pilots wouldn't want to steal airplanes, and it would not make sense to steal any airplane that needs special support from the manufacturer (the new owner can't keep it flying). Cars are much lower skill to steal and maintain and have a much broader market.
https://aerocorner.com/blog/what-happened-to-airplane-repo/
Really the only way to handle this is to put your plane in a locked hanger or chain it to the ground with a lock and then pay for whatever flight tracker that will alert you whenever a specific tail number is in the air. Follow it and then call whatever local police when it lands.
In the US, you can get shockingly very far without having to chat with ATC.
Seems plausible that something like that may be going on here