US: Police detain pilot after chase by US fighter jets
08 Apr 2009 2:08 AM
WASHINGTON, April 7 AFP - The Canadian pilot of a stolen Cessna plane who led US fighter jets on a chase across several states was in custody on Tuesday amid allegations he had tried to get shot down.
US F-16 aircraft scrambled to intercept the single-engine Cessna on the US border with Canada on Monday evening and trailed the plane for about five hours until the pilot landed on a highway in the midwestern state of Missouri, US military officials said.
The Canadian man abandoned the plane and was arrested later in a nearby convenience store, US authorities said.
The 31-year-old pilot of Turkish origin was identified as Adam Dylan Leon and also went under the name Yavuz Berke, US media reported.
A Missouri state trooper told ABC Television's Good Morning America that the pilot told police he wanted to commit suicide but did not have the courage to carry it out, so instead tried to get shot down.
"His idea was to fly the aircraft into the United States where he would be shot down," trooper Justin Watson said.
"He stated several times that at any time he thought he was going to be shot down."
The plane was stolen from a flight training school in the Canadian province of Ontario, Canadian and US media reported.
Canadian authorities alerted the United States to the approaching plane and fighter jets intercepted the Cessna at mid afternoon in Michigan on the northern US border, the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) said in a statement.
As fighter jets trailed the plane across Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri, the pilot failed to respond to radio messages and hand signals to follow the F-16 aircraft off his wing, US military officials said.
"Certainly when you have an F-16 sitting beside you as you're flying in a Cessna, you can't help but notice the aircraft is there," Major Brian Martin of North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) told CNN television on Tuesday.
"After the pilot decided not to listen to our nonverbal signals, we decided to tail it," Martin said.
After he landed the plane near Ellsinore, Missouri, the pilot was discovered by police at a convenience store a couple of miles away, according to media reports.
He had been at the shop for about 30 minutes, where he bought a Gatorade drink but reportedly did not have enough money to buy beef jerky.
Several F-16 aircraft were involved in the pursuit of the Cessna plane, NORAD said.
Two fighters from the Minnesota Air National Guard were initially scrambled out of Duluth and then aircraft from the Wisconsin Air National Guard took over. Those warplanes handed off to F-16s from the Louisiana Air National Guard based in New Orleans.
