What’s the most rebellious act you committed as a thirteen-year-old? Pinched some sweets from a corner shop, or maybe, skipped school to play kickabout in the local park? Steal a plane?
In an extreme act of teenage defiance, a 13-year-old boy is in hot water after stealing a small plane from a holiday resort and crashing it.
Earlier this month (July 15) the unnamed boy, from China, managed to sneak onto the runway in a giant outdoor car park and ‘glide both light-sport aircraft around’ after midnight.
The teenager and keen plane enthusiast was spotted on CCTV in the red SeaRey plane’s cockpit ‘before losing control and slamming into the runway’s end barrier’.
Take a look at the footage below:
Yet, undeterred from his accident, the devious kid snagged a second small plane and took it for a drive – thankfully, not crashing this one.
In a pretty remarkable getaway, the boy was reported to leave the scene on his pedal bike, after circling two or three times, before sneaking back into his family home.
Reports say investigators found the child at home doing schoolwork, his dad and his two sisters completely unaware that he had ventured out on an epic mission to steal a plane.
Bosses at the Taihu National Holiday Resort, based at Taihu Lake in Huzhou City in East China’s Zhejiang Province, arrived the following morning to find both SeaRey planes outside of their hangar.
It didn’t take them long to find the culprit.
Staff recalled seeing a ‘curious boy’ hanging around the flight base, staring at the planes for two hours. Now they realise the scheming child was hatching a Grand Theft Auto mission.
Despite damages to the plane, the staff at the resort were impressed with the boy’s ability to drive the vehicle unaided:
This child is truly very smart. We admire him! He was able to start the plane without any training, just by observing us. He has potential! I hope he is able to take some flight courses with us in the future and become a licensed pilot.
While the lad has a clear knack for flying planes (and I say this as someone who failed her driving test three times), the holiday resort has still claimed for damages. The kid’s parents have had to pay a fee of 2,000 RMB (£230) in compensation.
We can imagine the bollocking he got during the ride home… Dread to think what would have happened if the boy managed to take flight.
Tourist flight base supervisor Mr. He reassures the boy would have had to be a ‘trained pilot’ to get the plane off the ground. And, from now on, they’ve instilled better security measures – just in case he gets any more bright ideas.
It sounds like the plot to a huge new Pixar movie: a genius but mischievous boy with love of flying, hatches plan to steal a plane and goes on worldwide adventures.
Kids, ay?
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L’Oréal Blackett is a freelance journalist, broadcaster, and presenter with a lot of hair and a lot to say. A former digital magazine editor covering women’s issues and local news, she now works for a range of media publications including BBC Radio Manchester, Bumble and of course, UNILAD.