Latest from this mornings Houston paper.

1. Caught guy.
2. 21 year old who had been celebrating his 21st birthday for four
days.
3. Taxied a Bo around and decided to many things in cockpit.
4. Got in 172 and taxied and when on R/W said what the hell and pushed
throttle up and when it looked like it was going fast enough pulled
the wheel back and it flew.
5. Had the POM open on seat beside him.
6 Was a blue collar worker who lived 3 miles from Field and had worked
on field as a handy man.
7. Bird is still a total.

Owner had bird in locked hanger but had left the 'key' in A/C because
he had just returned from a flight??? Only an hour of fuel in bird.

And so closes this story.

Big John




On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 10:58:51 -0600, Big John
wrote:

Yesterday, 29 Feb, Brazoria County Airport just south of Houston.

Perp cut locks on 16 hangers .
Only thing taken was a C-172 and two 6 pacs (Texas staff of life).
T/O was about 06:30.
Wx was a band of heavy haze and fog
Airplane ran into high tension lines 3 miles from airport.
Knocked power out for 11,000 customers.
A/C crashed after hitting wires, on penitentiary property.
Totaled
No evidence of an attempted jail break.
No blood in cockpit.
Pilot got out and left his two passengers (6 pacs) in bird.
Foot prints show he took off in a southerly direction.
Still not apprehended
Owner says no one was authorized to fly bird.
If anyone sees a wayward pilot, please report to proper authorities
)

Only data released so far has been via local TV and morning paper.

Big John