All Man Threatened to Crash Stolen Plane Into Walmart

[Coleman Smith]

Man who threatened to crash stolen plane into Walmart didn't have pilot's license, Mississippi officials say

The plane started circling over Tupelo, Mississippi, about 5 a.m. and was in the air for more than four hours.

www.cbsnews.com

Once when I was in Walmart with my wife I did some thing that upset her and she said, "If you don't behave your self I am never going to bring you with me to Walmart again."

I thought about taking my cloths off and running naked through the store.

 

[bilby]

So this guy stole a plane, took off without permission, without filing a flight plan, and without holding any kind of license to fly, and then called 911 and made threats to crash into occupied buildings.

Doesn't he know that you're not supposed to use a cell phone in an airplane???

 

[Elixir]

"Man Threatened to Crash Stolen Plane Into Walmart"

Duh. You don't expect him to threaten to crash his own plane into Walmart, do you?

 

[Coleman Smith]

Based on a conversation that I had with a narc years ago you don't have to have a polit's license to be able to fly and airplane.

You need to know how to fly the airplane and access to it.

He said there are pilots who are mules for the drug cartels who are very good pilots who fly STOL aircraft and often fly many miles at very low altitudes to avoid radar. He said they often take off from pastures or gravel roads and land the same way at destination.

They were probably trained by pilots who never had a license.

 

[bilby]

Based on a conversation that I had with a narc years ago you don't have to have a polit's license to be able to fly and airplane.

You need to know how to fly the airplane and access to it.

He said there are pilots who are mules for the drug cartels who are very good pilots who fly STOL aircraft and often fly many miles at very low altitudes to avoid radar. He said they often take off from pastures or gravel roads and land the same way at destination.

They were probably trained by pilots who never had a license.

Well duh.

I know plenty of people who were stealing and driving cars at the age of twelve; None had, or could possibly get, a licence.

My grandad had a UK driving licence, but was utterly incompetent behind the wheel. The only thing he needed to do to obtain that licence was to go to a post office and pay six shillings for it. No testing of ability or competence of any kind. Those twelve year old TWOCers were far more capable behind the wheel than he was.

A licence - for anything - is a legal document. It says exactly nothing about your abilities, only that the authorities won't add "without a licence" to your list of offences when they throw the book at you.

The first pilots licences were no more competence based than the first drivers licenses. They both started out as a tax on people who were indulging in a new and expensive hobby.

As the requirements to obtain a licence become more onerous and start to require skills and knowledge assessments, or to require more demanding assessments, existing licence holders are typically exempt from having to take the new tests - they are (in some cases literally) grandfathered in.