Whereas Jason Hong was celebrating his seventy fifth birthday, he instantly discovered himself eager about his 1958 Cessna Skyhawk, a white and pink single-engine magnificence with colourful stripes that he calls his “previous treasure.”
He doesn’t fly it a lot anymore, however given the event he resolved to go to his airplane as quickly as he might to “say hello,” like a lifelong good friend you see round holidays and particular events.
Hong headed to Corona Municipal Airport after church on July 27, however when he received there, the airplane was not the place he’d left it. Hong was dumbfounded.
“I received confused,” he mentioned. “I assumed, did I park it someplace else, did the airport supervisor transfer it? However I seemed throughout.”
It was gone.
Hong was so shocked, he initially didn’t know who to succeed in out to a few lacking, stolen airplane. He puzzled, did somebody fly it out of the airport unnoticed? How lengthy had it been lacking?
The questions piled up. However the thriller solely deepened.
As Hong would come to seek out out, the colourful plane had been flown throughout Southern California by an unknown pilot, unnoticed, in a sequence of joyrides — or pleasure flights — at the least twice earlier than after which merely returned to the airport. Each Hong and police had been left scratching their heads.
The primary time he found it lacking, Hong reported it to Corona police, uncertain that he’d ever see the airplane he’s owned for practically 30 years once more. In spite of everything, he thought, who steals a whole airplane?
Then on the morning of July 29, he received a name from La Verne Police, telling him his airplane was present in Brackett Subject Airport.
“There’s my airplane, sitting there within the airport,” Hong mentioned, discovering cigarette butts and rubbish strewn about within the cockpit.
He barely took time to course of what occurred when, annoyed, he determined to tug out the battery from the airplane, shut it up, and go dwelling. The airplane wouldn’t begin with out the battery, he figured, and he might come again the following weekend when he had time to wash and examine it.
Besides that, when he returned that Sunday, Aug. 3, the airplane had vanished once more.
Hong reported the airplane lacking once more with La Verne Police, and puzzled what was happening. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than he received one other name. This time, El Monte Police advised him his airplane was sitting at San Gabriel Valley Airport.
When Hong received there to examine his airplane, his confusion solely grew.
“I discovered it with a battery,” he mentioned.
It hasn’t been simply Hong who has discovered himself befuddled by his disappearing and reappearing airplane.
“This airplane simply retains disappearing out of the blue,” mentioned Sgt. Robert Montanez of the Corona Police Division. “It’s simply bizarre.”
Montanez mentioned when Hong reported his airplane lacking the primary time, he’d final seen the plane in Could within the small Corona airport.
For police, a case of a whole airplane being stolen was so uncommon, that officers used the identical kind used for stolen vehicles, to take Hong’s report.
Officers are additionally conscious that the airplane has been taken a number of instances, and returned, making the incidents extra perplexing. However Montanez mentioned there’s no fast indication as to who the offender is.
“There’s no digicam video, there’s no actual leads as to who stole the airplane,” Montanez mentioned.
After discovering his airplane a second time, Hong mentioned he’s tried to place particulars of the thefts collectively, however the extra he learns the extra he grows confused in regards to the circumstances.
Hong seemed up his airplane on Flight Conscious, a website that tracks flights and plane, and located that on his seventy fifth birthday, somebody took off along with his airplane from La Verne airport at 9:54 p.m., for a 51-minute flight that at one level neared Palm Springs.
A number of hours later, on July 26, the colorfully striped airplane was within the air as soon as once more, this time for a short 22-minute flight from Riverside County towards La Verne that began at about 1:30 a.m.
It was the following day that Hong would uncover it lacking.
At first, Hong mentioned, he thought it might need been a random incident, however the particulars of the repeating incidents didn’t make sense to him, he mentioned.
The a number of flights point out that, whoever has taken his airplane has had some form of flight coaching, since they’ve been in a position to land the airplane on a number of events.
“Touchdown shouldn’t be straightforward, in order that they’re skilled,” he mentioned.
Hong mentioned he’s additionally discovered a headset within the airplane, in addition to a brand new battery to switch the one he eliminated, that means this mysterious pilot had spent tons of of {dollars} on tools to get his airplane again within the air.
The alternative of the battery, Hong mentioned, additionally suggests its somebody aware of not simply flying, however the mechanics of the airplane as they appeared to have the instruments and know-how about the kind of battery wanted, and set up it.
Having his airplane stolen has been irritating, Hong mentioned. However studying that the suspect has additionally been spending cash and tools to make use of — and return — the airplane has simply been complicated.
“Somebody breaks into your home, they’re searching for jewellery or money proper?” he mentioned, making an attempt to motive with the circumstances. “However on this case, what’s the aim? It’s like somebody breaks my window, after which they put a brand new one up.”
The truth that somebody has been touring in it to completely different airports additionally puzzles him.
The 75-year-old Yorba Linda resident mentioned he’s spoken to common pilots and staff on the San Gabriel Valley Airport in El Monte, who mentioned that they noticed the airplane flying out and in of the airport a number of instances in July.
“On and off, they flew out and in, out and in, virtually a whole month with out figuring out,” he mentioned. “That is actually a uncommon scenario.”
One common on the airport, Hong mentioned, advised him he noticed a lady, about 5 ft, 3 inches tall, and in her 40s or 50s, flying and sitting within the airplane on a number of events. The person advised Hong he had a dialog along with her at one level, and distinctly remembered her as a result of she was usually seen sitting within the cockpit throughout the day, making individuals on the airport surprise why she wouldn’t simply calm down within the air-conditioned airport lounge.
“Very unusual,” Hong mentioned.
For now, Hong has chained his airplane in San Gabriel Valley Airport and mentioned he’s uncomfortable flying it till he can totally examine it.
Apart from that, he’s undecided what to do to maintain his airplane grounded, or to seek out out who has been secretly flying it out.
“I don’t know what to do,” he mentioned. “It’s the strangest factor.”
