Drunk Student Pilot Steals Plane

[Sunfish]

- And lives to tell about it.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/4639691/detail.html

Not sure if this topic belongs here ar not.

[Leftit2L8]

Unbelieveable stuff !

[Genghis the Engineer]

Ex-student pilot surely, I can't see any chool wanting anything to do with the chap now!

G

[MLS-12D]

Difficult to say who is more irresponsible: the drunken student pilot, or grandstanding "County Executive (whatever that is) Andrew Spano". What complete drivel!Spano angrily asserted that post-Sept. 11 security measures in place at the Westchester airport were not duplicated at Danbury, where the single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk departed at about 1:30 a.m. A stolen plane, he said, "could possibly be a weapon" and the Cessna "could have crashed into any number of areas," he said.

...

Spano called for an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and for security provisions to be administered and paid for nationally.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[tmmorris]

Amazing. I know Danbury and Arrow Aviation well - that's where I fly when I'm on holiday. Never flown their 172, though - always used PA28s while there.

Westchester is what most American airports [I]don't[I] want to become, i.e. dominated by big-money commuter and executive jets, and squeezing out the SEP types. Danbury would be ruined if it became like that.

That said, security at Danbury isn't great. You'd only have to vault a 6-foot gate to get onto the ramp, and Arrow's building isn't particularly secure.

Tim

[MLS-12D]

If a six-foot gate is not enough, a seven-footer could be installed; but then someone would inevitably say that nothing less than a eight-foot, triple-reinforced gate will be adequate. Where does it end?

There are plenty of things that could be done to increase safety; but all of them come at a price, monetary or otherwise. Personally, I wouldn't want to live in a 100% risk-free world, assuming that such a thing is possible.

"dominated by big-money commuter and executive jets" ... I know exactly the kind of place you mean: sterile, anonymous places, populated exclusively by bored non-flyers and professional pilots wearing silly white polyester shirts with four gold bars on the shoulders. If an old biplane ever chanced to fly in, it would be uncermoniously warned off the premises (can't have those wretched anachronisms dripping their dirty oil on our spotless apron!).

[Kolibear]

I wonder what his landings are like when he's sober..............