California teenager steals plane from airport only to crash it minutes later

A 17-year-old girl was arrested on Wednesday for trying to steal a plane at Fresno Yosemite International Airport in California, and later crashing it into a chain-link fence in an attempt to fly it. The incident took place at the General Aviation section of the airport near Shields Avenue and Winery around 7.30 am. 

Got access to a private aircraft

According to local media reports, the girl climbed over the airport’s perimeter into the general aviation area near East Shields and North Winery avenues and made her way to the pilot’s seat of a two-seat King Air 200 plane and managed to turn the engine on. While the airport security video revealed that the plane made a number of hits before dashing into a nearby building, then a fence, before finally taking off.

Fresno Police Chief Drew Bessinger said that the girl had hopped a fence at an airport maintenance building and managed to get access to the two-seat propeller-driven private aircraft.  He also added that there were cameras in the area, and the general aviation section of the airport had less fencing than the commercial area of the airport, about a quarter-mile away. Authorities still don’t know why the girl broke into the airport, but they don’t believe it was a terrorism-related motive.

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Talking about the incident, Bessinger revealed that when authorities responded to the scene at 7:30 am, they found the girl in the pilot’s seat, wearing a headset. She was uncooperative and disoriented. He added that the girl has been booked into a juvenile hall for theft of an aircraft.

According to reports, the accident has considerably damaged the plane and airport though no one was hurt by the incident. Meanwhile, the girl’s mother had said that she hadn’t heard from her daughter since Tuesday night.

Last week, two teenagers were arrested in connection with a shooting that wounded one man in a busy suburban Atlanta mall food court at the height of Christmas shopping season, police said.

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