For many years, Jason Hong from California was the happy owner of a 1958 Cessna Skyhawk, until strange things started happening to it — the white and red single-engine plane regularly disappears from the airport and returns after a while in better condition than before.
Hong hasn’t flown for a long time, but during his 75th birthday celebration on July 27, he decided to visit his “old friend” at Corona Municipal Airport. To his surprise, the plane was not there.
“I was confused and at first thought I had parked it somewhere else, or the airport manager had moved it,” recalls Hong, who was so confused that he even doubted whether to call the police.
Using Flight Aware, a flight-tracking website, Hong was able to find out that the plane had flown over Southern California at least twice, piloted by an unknown pilot — for 51 minutes on July 27 near Palm Springs and 22 minutes on July 28 from Riverside County toward La Verne. Hong went to the police and mentally said goodbye to his property, but two days later the plane was found at Brackett Field Airport.
The Californian, rejoicing in his good fortune, took the battery, closed the plane and returned home, hoping that the thieves would no longer have the opportunity to start the vehicle. Imagine the man’s emotions when the plane disappeared again on August 3.
Hong again contacted the police asking what was happening. After a while, he received a call from another department and was told that the plane was now at the San Gabriel Valley Airport. When he arrived, his confusion only grew:
“I found it with a battery,” Hong says.
The plane also had a brand-new headset, so the mystery hijacker spent hundreds of dollars to get the plane in the air. Hong assumes that this is a very experienced pilot who not only flies, but has all the necessary skills and tools to replace parts.
It is not known what the police are doing, but local inspectors have not come close to solving these mysterious “hijackings.”
“This plane just keeps disappearing all of a sudden,” says Sgt. Robert Montañez of the Corona Police Department. “It’s very strange.”
Hijacking an airplane was a rare occurrence for this region, as they used a stolen car form to take Hong’s statement. After these incidents, the Cessna Skyhawk was stolen and returned several more times. But the police have not yet seen any signs that would indicate the identity of the hijacker.
“There’s no camera footage, no real clues as to who hijacked the plane,” Montañez says.
Hong is very puzzled by these situations and does not understand the motivation of the kidnapper:
“Someone breaks into your house, they’re looking for jewelry or money, right? But in this case, what’s the goal? It’s like breaking a window and then putting in a new one.”
The man was talking to some regular airport customers, where one of them said that he had seen a woman aged 40-50 and 5’10” tall on his plane who was behaving rather strangely.
Hong has now parked the Cessna Skyhawk at another airport, but he is afraid to fly it until he has conducted a thorough inspection. And the next temporary hijackings have not been canceled yet.
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