Plane drama live on TV

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 1

Plane drama live on TV

NZPA Brisbane . Brisbane television view- I ers watched, as it happened, a drama involving a stolen light aircraft being played out over their city ' yesterday. From their homes they watched the pilot’s shaky attempts to land the aircraft at Eagle Farm Airport; twice he hopped the aircraft along the runway, narrowly missing buildings and trees along the airport's boundary. The landing ended a 90m inute drama over Brisbane in which all flight; movements were suspended. The police immediately surrounded the plane and took the pilot into custody. The police said it started when a youth, aged 18, fpm Adelaide, seized a single-engine Beechcraft and took to the skies after an argument with his girlfriend. The authorities sent an j experienced pilot into the I air in another aircraft to try to guide the youth safely to the ground. The youth at times ap* 1 peared to be just "playing around” said the Queensland Director of the Transport Department (Mr M. Seymour). Hundreds of spectators crowded the airport carparks to watch the plane as it flew perilously close | to buildings, raising concern among airport officials who at one stage cleared the domestic terminal. During one of the youth's abortive attempts to land the aircraft, the propellor blades were bent when the nose of the plane grazed the tarmac. Mr Seymour said checks were made during the afternoon to find out if the. youth had taken any flying instructions. “There is no record of his holding a licence or having taken lessons,” he said.