AURORA, Mo. -
A thief, or thieves hit the Aurora Municipal Airport late Wednesday night, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment off planes parked there.
Someone broke into the airport hangars and the planes themselves.
All 23 planes were hit, and on every one, the thief took off with the GPS systems, the plane radios and the transponders. To replace those three items, pilots say it would cost at least 15-thousand dollars.
Now the question is why?
The pilots we talked to say they're guessing there must be a demand on the black market.
Each plane has a designated transponder which is what allows the plane to be traced. It's how the tower and other planes know where the plane is flying.
"This is definitely a planned out, my opinion, it's definitely a planned out thing because like I said, it's not equipment that you use in your cars, not equipment that you use in your house, so what other purpose would there need to be unless there was a high demand for it on the other side of the market" said pilot Toby Sumners.
KY3 does not know if the cases are related, but just a few weeks ago, another plane was parked out at the Flying Bar H Airport just east of Springfield by 125 and Sunshine. A plane owner there says someone stole the engine off his plane, valued at 30-thousand dollars.
Tampering with any plane is a federal offense in most cases.
The airport operator in Aurora tells us in his opinion, this has everything to do with money, not with terrorism.
Story and Video: http://www.ky3.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment