14 year old kids steal plane, have rough landing.

Dam that's some good joy riding!

Teenagers fly nest in stolen plane
By Chris Ayres

TWO teenage boys were arrested while running away from home — after stealing a plane. The 14-year-old joyriders took the single-engined Mooney M20C without permission from one of their parents. They were later forced to crash land in the Mojave desert. They narrowly missed the nearby towns of Palm Springs and Twentynine Palms, home to a large base of US Marines.

The theft was made possible by minimal security at Big Bear Airport, to the northeast of Los Angeles. It has no control tower and does not require pilots to check in with security. The boys, who have not been named, bypassed what safeguards there were by stealing keys for the airport, the hangar and the plane. Before the aircraft took off, two pilots became suspicious and called the police, but the squad cars arrived long after the aircraft’s wheels had left the runway.

Soon afterwards, the runaways were forced to ditch the aircraft in Joshua Tree National Park, escaping with only minor injuries. They were treated at the scene by a park ranger, before being taken to San Bernardino County Juvenile Hall. “The boys were shaken up and one had a cut on his forehead,” said Joe Zarki, a spokesman for the park.

The plane suffered damage to its fuselage, landing gear and propeller. It was disassembled and removed from the park, Mr Zarki said. “People sometimes do strange things,” he said. “I’m just glad that nobody was hurt and the boys are OK.” Cindy Beavers, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said: “There was a disagreement between the boys and their parents, and [the boys] decided to run away.”

They were arrested on suspicion of stealing an aircraft as well as for burglary because they broke into the airport hangar. Neither of the boys had a pilot’s licence but the teenager who flew the aircraft had regularly flown with his father. It is thought that the boys were forced to crash land after discovering that there was only 90 minutes of fuel in the aircraft’s tanks.