Wed, Jul 07, 2010
Cessna Corvalis Taken From Monroe County Airport Over The
Weekend
The theft of a Cessna Corvalis from Monroe County Airport (KBMG)
near Bloomington, IN sometime late Saturday or early Sunday
resembles a string of airplane thefts in which Colton Harris-Moore
is a suspect. The fully-fueled airplane was taken from a locked
hangar and was later found nose down in the surf in shallow waters
off the coast of the Bahamas.
File Photo
The range of the Corvalis is about 1,200 miles, which would make
the trip possible on a single tank of fuel. Bloomington is about 50
miles south in Indianapolis.
The theft has the same MO as a string of airplane and other
thefts that have authorities looking for Moore-Harris. The
19-year-old walked out of a juvenile facility in Washington state
in 2008, and is a suspect in a string of airplane, car, and boat
thefts since that time. He is accused of stealing several aircraft,
flying them despite having no formal pilot training, and landing
well enough to be able to walk away.
Television station WTHR in Indianapolis and the Herald of
Everett, Washington report that a stolen out-of-state car was found
by Monroe County sheriff's deputies near the airport. Airport
manager Bruce Payton told the Bloomington Herald-Times that the
airport is surrounded by a 10-foot high fence topped with barbed
wire with locked gates, and that the airplane was locked in a
hangar. The tower at KBMG is not staffed between 2130 and 0630
local time, so there would be no record of the airplane's departure
and few people at the airport.
Bloomington, IN Sectional
While the Monroe County sheriff told the Herald-Times that while
there is no direct evidence linking Harris-Moore to the theft, it
certainly fits the pattern of the crimes in which he is a
suspect.
The Bahamian government is investigating the incident. The exact
location of the crash has not been identified.
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