Kalgoorlie aircraft thief jailed!.
The bloke that stole and crashed an aircraft from the Kalgoorlie airport two years ago, was jailed today.
Mr.Turner, being a PPL although not current or twin rated, stole a cessna 337 owned by murchison relines, a company he was employed by at the time, and attempted to fly to Esperance. after becoming lost he landed on a road and went to the pub and started drinking with some of the farming community. he then enlisted their help to jumpstart the aircraft and attempted a take off from the road, resulting in a crash and destruction of the aircraft.
On a personal note, Mr. Turkey was a pax on a flight I did in the very same aircraft, three days earlier. After he informed me he was the holder of a PPL I offered him the right hand seat as an obsever. I was so concerned with his conduct during the flight that at the first refueling stop, I repositioned him to seat six row three. He was found to be a strange bloke by all that had anything to do with him on the trip, and in my own opinion, was mentally unstable. He was lucky to get away with a prang and not hurt himself, or more importantly, anyone else.
I hope he gets a 250lb fairy as a cell mate for wrecking Grasshopper. she was a good old bus that I enjoyed flying.
(although she was a good old truck, I don't know where the press got the $200,000 figure from.........strewth, I could buy three of them for that money).