Mon, Mar 16, 2009
Police Say He Tried To Crash The Plane Into A Shopping
Center
A Brazilian man sought by officials
on rape charges last week forced his wife out of a moving car after
a heated argument, and drove off with his five-year-old daughter.
Heading to a local airport, the man commandeered a sight-seeing
flight at gunpoint, and proceeded to fly the plane for about an
hour before fatally crashing near a busy shopping center.
Reuters reports the man was identified by Goiania Police as
Kleber Barbosa Da Silva, 31. He was wanted on charges of raping a
13-year-old girl earlier in the week. Police reported Da Silva had
an argument with his wife as they drove along in the family car
last Thursday. He then forced his wife out of the moving car, and
sped off with their young daughter.
Stopping at an airport in nearby Luziania, Da Silva hired a
pilot for a sight-seeing flight. Commandeering the airplane at
gunpoint, he forced the pilot out of the plane as it sat on the
runway. Taking the controls himself, Da Silva flew the
single-engine, low-wing aircraft over the city for nearly an hour
before eventually crashing in a shopping center parking lot.
Police commander Manoel Borges led the investigation of the
incident. "By our reading of what happened and his psychological
state, we are convinced that his intention was to smash into the
shopping center," he said. The plane narrowly missed the shopping
center but damaged over a dozen parked cars.
Da Silva and his daughter were fatally injured, but reportedly
no one on the ground was hurt. Businessman Agner Rodrigues da Costa
told Globo News Service, “I avoided being killed by a second.
My car would have been there underneath.”
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