Teenager tries to steal American Eagle jet

capejet · Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:54 am

I wonder what airport in Chicago this kid planned to land in.

http://txktoday.com/crime/man-accused-t ... a-airport/

jetskipper · Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:57 am

It doesn’t mention in the article if the man suspected was a licensed pilot or had any flight training.

Super80Fan · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:04 am

jetskipper wrote:
It doesn’t mention in the article if the man suspected was a licensed pilot or had any flight training.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say no.

NYPECO · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:06 am

I can't imagine why he thought he would even know how to fly it, or even start the engines for that matter.

wiggy · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:24 am

thats ridiculous

pdxav8r · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:34 am

Would like to hear what comes of a blood/urine sample. Sounds like the cops knew who he was. Maybe some back story to follow.

usflyer msp · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:37 am

pdxav8r wrote:
Would like to hear what comes of a blood/urine sample. Sounds like the cops knew who he was. Maybe some back story to follow.

This. I suspect he has some mental health or substance abuse issues..

77H · Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:35 am

capejet wrote:
I wonder what airport in Chicago this kid planned to land in.

http://txktoday.com/crime/man-accused-t ... a-airport/

Definitely O'Hare. If you're in the business of Grand Theft Aircraft you're gonna go big...

I imagine he's grounded from Flight Simulator once he gets out from under all the legal troubles.
Hell... if this gent played as much FS as I did growing up he may well have pulled it off if it weren't for those meddling police.

On a more serious note, don't most RON aircraft at outstations seal the aircraft? If you're never seen one before, opening the door to a commercial aircraft isn't as straight forward as pulling the door handle of a car, especially in the dark.

77H

Woodreau · Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:06 pm

There is another article which states the person thought there wasn’t anything more to flying the plane other than pushing buttons and levers, which in a way is pretty much true. All you need to do to fly a plane is just push buttons and levers (well on an Embraer 145 like the one in Texarkana you have to turn knobs too). It’s a matter of figuring out the correct order to push turn or pull.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/aug/ ... -fly-it-ra

They don’t necessarily seal the aircraft on RON aircraft. Probably just close the door and pull the jet bridge back. I don’t believe Texarkana has jet bridges, so it’s just air stairs that can be pushed up to the aircraft, which can be done by one person and the door has instructions painted on the side on how to open the door.

intrance · Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:13 pm

77H wrote:
capejet wrote:
I wonder what airport in Chicago this kid planned to land in.

http://txktoday.com/crime/man-accused-t ... a-airport/

Definitely O'Hare. If you're in the business of Grand Theft Aircraft you're gonna go big...

I imagine he's grounded from Flight Simulator once he gets out from under all the legal troubles.
Hell... if this gent played as much FS as I did growing up he may well have pulled it off if it weren't for those meddling police.

On a more serious note, don't most RON aircraft at outstations seal the aircraft? If you're never seen one before, opening the door to a commercial aircraft isn't as straight forward as pulling the door handle of a car, especially in the dark.

77H

Depending on the aircraft, but if it was a CRJ, it really is as simple as pulling a handle and pulling the door open. A seal is not going to do much against that, it will just tell which ever authorized person was supposed to open the aircraft later, that someone has opened the door who shouldn’t have.

77H · Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:30 pm

intrance wrote:
77H wrote:
capejet wrote:
I wonder what airport in Chicago this kid planned to land in.

http://txktoday.com/crime/man-accused-t ... a-airport/

Definitely O'Hare. If you're in the business of Grand Theft Aircraft you're gonna go big...

I imagine he's grounded from Flight Simulator once he gets out from under all the legal troubles.
Hell... if this gent played as much FS as I did growing up he may well have pulled it off if it weren't for those meddling police.

On a more serious note, don't most RON aircraft at outstations seal the aircraft? If you're never seen one before, opening the door to a commercial aircraft isn't as straight forward as pulling the door handle of a car, especially in the dark.

77H

Depending on the aircraft, but if it was a CRJ, it really is as simple as pulling a handle and pulling the door open. A seal is not going to do much against that, it will just tell which ever authorized person was supposed to open the aircraft later, that someone has opened the door who shouldn’t have.

Apologies for the confusion, I meant sealed as in closed up, not the tamper tape seal.

BC77008 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:56 pm

The airstairs were likely pulled up to the aircraft and the aircraft door closed. A closed aircraft door is very easy to figure out how to open, as there are instructions on how to open it on the outside (to assist external rescue crews in an emergency). With the ERJ you simply lift the latch and pull the door towards you.

stratosphere · Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:15 pm

Considering teenagers today cannot even drive a car with a stick shift that was pretty ambitious to try to steal an E jet.

Tucker1 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:24 pm

stratosphere wrote:
Considering teenagers today cannot even drive a car with a stick shift that was pretty ambitious to try to steal an E jet.

Pretty big generalization there. Most kids in my area know how.

Acey559 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:16 pm

Does anyone know which Eagle this was? When I was as American Eagle Airlines, we would lock the flight deck door as part of our securing checklist on RONs. Either that didn’t happen or it wasn’t Envoy, if they still do that. Either way, glad this ended in a pretty anticlimactic way.

Brandon757 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:40 pm

Acey559 wrote:
Does anyone know which Eagle this was? When I was as American Eagle Airlines, we would lock the flight deck door as part of our securing checklist on RONs. Either that didn’t happen or it wasn’t Envoy, if they still do that. Either way, glad this ended in a pretty anticlimactic way.

DFW-TXK is flown as Envoy.

NameOmitted · Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:55 pm

To be fair, it'll be the best "what I did over summer vacation" essay ever turned in at the kid's school.

drdisque · Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:31 pm

TXK is served by Envoy ERJ's.

KCaviator · Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:57 pm

He was definitely going to Meigs.

KCaviator · Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:59 pm

stratosphere wrote:
Considering teenagers today cannot even drive a car with a stick shift that was pretty ambitious to try to steal an E jet.

Eh, it’s not that hard. Turn a couple knobs and press a couple buttons and you’re up and runnin’.

Having done both, driving a stick is harder.

gabo787 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:06 pm

The really worrying thing is how easy he got acces to a plane.. What if he was a terrorist? Very poor security.

gabo787 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:06 pm

The really worrying thing is how easy he got acces to a plane.. What if he was a terrorist? Very poor security.

910A · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:06 pm

Minor league stuff...back in the late 70's my brother was a police officer assigned to the San Francisco Airport, and some guy that didn't have both oars in the water, decided that he wanted to borrow a United 747, he was seated in the cockpit before he was taken into custody.

PatrickZ80 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:14 pm

910A wrote:
Minor league stuff...back in the late 70's my brother was a police officer assigned to the San Francisco Airport, and some guy that didn't have both oars in the water, decided that he wanted to borrow a United 747, he was seated in the cockpit before he was taken into custody.

That was the seventies, security was much less of an issue then. Today it's much more sophisticated, or at least it should be. What was science fiction back then is reality now.

Still somehow this teenager was able to get to an aircraft. This must have triggered security, there's no way around it. Question is, how far ahead was he when security was alarmed? He may have had a valid reason to get very close to the aircraft and only the last bit was an offence.

richierich · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:22 pm

NameOmitted wrote:
To be fair, it'll be the best "what I did over summer vacation" essay ever turned in at the kid's school.

I don't know...doing time isn't usually the kind of story that kids like to hear.

http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?i ... type=cmsid

Reminds me of this disturbing event, only this was a former or off-duty pilot with other motives.

richierich · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:25 pm

Twenty years ago, I would have said he probably had intentions to land this at Meigs Field...

N766UA · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:27 pm

Tucker1 wrote:
stratosphere wrote:
Considering teenagers today cannot even drive a car with a stick shift that was pretty ambitious to try to steal an E jet.

Pretty big generalization there. Most kids in my area know how.

LOL how and why do you know that?

Ziyulu · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:51 pm

New basic economy! Your flight does not come with a pilot or ground staff. You board and fly it yourself!

drdisque · Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:54 pm

This isn't exactly a huge facility, look at it on Google Earth. You can park right next to the terminal, over a fence and you're about 30 feet from the aircraft. Even with perfect response, seeing him as he touches the fence, the intruder would likely beat a security guard to the aircraft by at least a minute. Of course, you can't realistically start and start taxiing a jet in a minute so all the guards have to do is park cars in front and behind before the guy can get it running, if he doesn't give up when you show up. What would be dangerous is if they didn't notice him for 10 or 15 minutes. That would give a skilled intruder time to actually get the aircraft started and taxiing.

Acey559 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 7:40 pm

Interesting. Either Envoy stopped having crews lock the door or someone left it open/unlocked.

PlanesNTrains · Thu Aug 02, 2018 7:58 pm

richierich wrote:
NameOmitted wrote:
To be fair, it'll be the best "what I did over summer vacation" essay ever turned in at the kid's school.

I don't know...doing time isn't usually the kind of story that kids like to hear.

http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?i ... type=cmsid

Reminds me of this disturbing event, only this was a former or off-duty pilot with other motives.

Ya, I was just thinking about that one.

deebee278 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:05 pm

gabo787 wrote:
The really worrying thing is how easy he got access to a plane.. What if he was a terrorist? Very poor security.

I don't know, sounds like the system worked. He probably had to climb a high fence, perhaps with barbed wire on top, was caught on video that someone was monitoring and the authorities arrived shortly after that.

F27500 · Thu Aug 02, 2018 9:32 pm

capejet wrote:
I wonder what airport in Chicago this kid planned to land in.

http://txktoday.com/crime/man-accused-t ... a-airport/

Definitely MEIGS. May as well make a splash on both ends !

smokeybandit · Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:47 pm

"They recognized the man as Scott"

A strange way to report things. I wonder if the guy is a local known for mental health issues.

ikramerica · Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:20 pm

N766UA wrote:
Tucker1 wrote:
stratosphere wrote:
Considering teenagers today cannot even drive a car with a stick shift that was pretty ambitious to try to steal an E jet.

Pretty big generalization there. Most kids in my area know how.

LOL how and why do you know that?

Maybe he’s not in the USA?

Most cars in the USA are automatic and many models are net even offered in manual anymore. With modern automatics fuel economy can be inferior with a stick so to meet Cafe some models aren’t sold with sticks.

Add to that the decline in teens even interested in driving at all, the claim that most teens in any area of the USA know how to drive a stick is dubious. So again, he’s likely not from here.

wiggy · Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:37 pm

did they catch him

jetsetterusa · Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:55 pm

Playing to much GTA haven't we?

IPFreely · Fri Aug 03, 2018 12:35 am

ikramerica wrote:
Most cars in the USA are automatic and many models are net even offered in manual anymore. With modern automatics fuel economy can be inferior with a stick so to meet Cafe some models aren’t sold with sticks.

Add to that the decline in teens even interested in driving at all, the claim that most teens in any area of the USA know how to drive a stick is dubious. So again, he’s likely not from here.

Or more likely he is from rural America where kids grow up driving tractors, farm equipment, and trucks with manual transmissions before they're old enough to drive cars. And where they look at hybrid cars and laugh. There is more to America then inner cities and suburbs.

DocLightning · Fri Aug 03, 2018 12:45 am

pdxav8r wrote:
Would like to hear what comes of a blood/urine sample. Sounds like the cops knew who he was. Maybe some back story to follow.

I'm going to guess that we'll probably never hear about this again. For the rest of humanity who DGAF about airplanes, their overall interest in following the story will be veeery low.

If anyone would like to follow Texarkana court proceedings, then I'm sure we would be interested.

F27500 · Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:02 am

The best part is the article said Lil Thuggy was stealing the plane to fly to a rap concert in Chicago.

cougar15 · Fri Aug 03, 2018 4:58 am

Acey559 wrote:
Interesting. Either Envoy stopped having crews lock the door or someone left it open/unlocked.

Doors are never locked on a commercial A/C, you think someone brings the key in the morning or what? A simple security seal (sticker) is added over the shut door... that's it!

nine4nine · Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:36 am

cougar15 wrote:
Acey559 wrote:
Interesting. Either Envoy stopped having crews lock the door or someone left it open/unlocked.

Doors are never locked on a commercial A/C, you think someone brings the key in the morning or what? A simple security seal (sticker) is added over the shut door... that's it!

Is the sticker over the door standard on RON’s post 9/11?

I used to access our 737’s early in the morning hours before first flight to air out the cabins and either power up the APU or Swotch on the GPU. I’d usually sit in the cockpit open the windows and enjoy my morning coffee and a smoke. This was all post 9/11 and I left the industry shortly thereafter so I don’t know if things changed.

On a another note this story reminds me of the guy in Utah a few years back who attempted to steal a DL CR2 and actually powered up and went thru a fence adjacent the terminal.

Acey559 · Fri Aug 03, 2018 12:28 pm

cougar15 wrote:
Acey559 wrote:
Interesting. Either Envoy stopped having crews lock the door or someone left it open/unlocked.

Doors are never locked on a commercial A/C, you think someone brings the key in the morning or what? A simple security seal (sticker) is added over the shut door... that's it!

If you’d bothered to read, I specifically said the flight deck door which, yes, we did lock on every RON. It was even required to be locked any time both pilots left the aircraft, even in a hub. And yes, we (flight crew) did bring our keys as required by the FM-1. At Eagle/Envoy we were issued three keys in training, one of which was a key to the flight deck door.

DL717 · Fri Aug 03, 2018 12:57 pm

Woodreau wrote:
There is another article which states the person thought there wasn’t anything more to flying the plane other than pushing buttons and levers, which in a way is pretty much true. All you need to do to fly a plane is just push buttons and levers (well on an Embraer 145 like the one in Texarkana you have to turn knobs too). It’s a matter of figuring out the correct order to push turn or pull.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/aug/ ... -fly-it-ra

They don’t necessarily seal the aircraft on RON aircraft. Probably just close the door and pull the jet bridge back. I don’t believe Texarkana has jet bridges, so it’s just air stairs that can be pushed up to the aircraft, which can be done by one person and the door has instructions painted on the side on how to open the door.

Too many video games.

Trystar · Sat Aug 04, 2018 4:45 am

DocLightning wrote:
pdxav8r wrote:
Would like to hear what comes of a blood/urine sample. Sounds like the cops knew who he was. Maybe some back story to follow.

I'm going to guess that we'll probably never hear about this again.

Good. If this young man is dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues then there's no reason for the general public to hear any more about it.

c933103 · Sat Aug 04, 2018 6:14 am

If someone else is trying to plant a bomb within the cockpit instead if trying to steal it, and in case it wasn't caught by whoever monitoring the surveillance camera for whatever reasons, could the bomb be detected before take off?

N766UA · Sat Aug 04, 2018 2:36 pm

ikramerica wrote:
N766UA wrote:
Tucker1 wrote:

Pretty big generalization there. Most kids in my area know how.

LOL how and why do you know that?

Maybe he’s not in the USA?

Most cars in the USA are automatic and many models are net even offered in manual anymore. With modern automatics fuel economy can be inferior with a stick so to meet Cafe some models aren’t sold with sticks.

Add to that the decline in teens even interested in driving at all, the claim that most teens in any area of the USA know how to drive a stick is dubious. So again, he’s likely not from here.

Ah, that makes some sense. Then again, I pictured him walking around, clipboard in hand, glancing in car windows and interviewing local kids about their driving habits, and that’s funnier to me, so...

IPFreely wrote:
Or more likely he is from rural America where kids grow up driving tractors, farm equipment, and trucks with manual transmissions before they're old enough to drive cars. And where they look at hybrid cars and laugh. There is more to America then inner cities and suburbs.

Are you from the 40’s?

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