He stole a plane

[hihosland]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-49773399

 

 

[onetrack]

A Slav immigrant by the name of Milan Iskra, stole a new Cessna 175 from Maylands Aerodome in W.A., in June 1962. His stated aim was to fly back to his native Yugoslavia from W.A., because he was homesick.

 

With little training, he managed to take off on the night of June 24, 1962, without being seen, and he managed to crash land successfully, early next morning, in the Little Sandy Desert, around 110kms N.E. of Granite Peak Station.

 

He stumbled into Ethel Creek Station (SE of the town of Newman, which didn't exist in 1962) about a week later, having survived the approximately 255km desert trek with little food or water.

 

He was arrested and charged with the theft of the aircraft - being the first person to have ever been charged with aircraft theft, in W.A.

 

But from mid-July 1962, after his last court mention, Iskra is never mentioned again, in court reports.

 

Milan Iskra virtually disappeared off the planet - but there is one further report in May 1965, that one Milan Iskra - reported as having escaped from the Claremont Mental Hospital in Perth - was found wandering in the grounds of the Fremantle War Memorial park, the next morning, still in his khaki hospital clothing.

 

It appears quite likely that Iskra was deemed mentally unfit to plead to the aircraft theft charge, and was thereby detained indefinitely in Claremont Mental Hospital, under W.A.'s Mental Health Act.

 

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austmz/VH-RDT(1).html

 

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131727323

 

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105843561

 

I understand this stolen Cessna, is still in flying condition today.

 

 

[onetrack]

This is one of the earliest stories I could find, of someone only partly-trained, stealing an aircraft (in the U.S.). There may have been earlier thefts that didn't make the newspapers.

 

From January 1922, in the exact words of the journalist of the day (note the breathless journalistic flair) ....

 

"STOLEN AEROPLANE.

MOTOR FAILS IN THE AIR.

TWELVE HUNDRED FEET PLUNGE.

 

A jobless young aviator, from out of the West, beat the most spectacular of long-standing records of city criminals by stealing an airplane (says the New York "Herald").

It was the first time probably in the whole history of aviation when a civilian aircraft was stolen by flying it from its hangar.

Twelve hundred feet in the air, a mile from the start, the motor of the stolen plane sizzled and then ceased popping.

It was up to the outlaw pilot to bring it down as best he could. 

 

The ship descended in wild sweeps, steered for the Evanston golf course as the only practical landing field, missed a grove of trees by a hair's breadth, and buried its nose in the tenth green.

A terrified farmer rescued the trapped and injured aviator, and helped him to a doctor's office. Then the Westerner boarded an elevated train for Chicago.

In the meantime it was learned that the Wrecked plane had been stolen.

The farmer and the doctor presumed the injured man was its rightful pilot.

Evanston police flashed word to the Chicago detective bureau to be on the watch for an elevated passenger with his head draped in cotton gauze.

 

Four detectives found him on a train as it pulled into the Randolph-street station at Wells-street.

At the Iroquois Hospital, after his foot, leg, and head had been cared for, the young buccaneer of the air confessed frankly and fully.

 

His name, he said, was Frank Strand, of Sioux City, lowa.

 

He is 28 years old, an automobile mechanic, an aviator with eight hours' flying experience under a civilian instructor in Great Falls, Montana, where he lived until recently, when his family moved to Sioux City.

The stolen plane, which was damaged to the extent of $4000, belonged to W. C. Burmeister, one of the owners of the Burmeister Airdrome, and was semi-officially, part of the Evanston police equipment."

 

I cannot find what Frank Strands punishment was, but no doubt his keenness for flying was crimped somewhat, by this event. 

 

 

[onetrack]

I did find another delightful little news article about Frank Strands aircraft theft, from the equally-delightfully-named paper, "The Chatsworth Plaindealer", of Chatsworth, Ill.

 

It appears Frank was really keen to go barnstorming, but he had no money, no decent-paying job, and little hope of carrying out his hearts desire - except by stealing an aircraft!

 

Frank actually stole the aircraft in January 1921, the first article I picked up was a reprint from the New York Herald in Australia - a year later!