Mystery plane thief keeps taking vintage plane for joyrides, returning it repaired

A mystery plane thief keeps stealing a vintage small plane for sky-high joyrides — and even repairing it before returning it ready for the next time.

Retired California pilot Jason Hong told the Los Angeles Times he had just finished celebrating his 75th birthday when he suddenly got the urge to pay a visit to his “old treasure,” a 1958 Cessna Skyhawk stationed at the Corona Municipal Airport on July 27.

Instead, he found his white and red single-engine plane missing, with police notifying him that the plane had been checked out at least twice before the latest mysterious joyride.

Adding to the mystery, the plane had also been maintained and repaired, he said.

“On and off, they flew in and out, in and out, almost an entire month without knowing,” he said, with some witnesses suggesting the plane thief was a middle-aged woman. “This is really a rare situation.”

Hong said he’s baffled as to who might be taking it — and why.

“Someone breaks into your house, they’re looking for jewelry or cash, right?” Hong said. “But in this case, what’s the purpose? It’s like someone breaks my window, and then they put a new one up.”

After that first time noticing it was missing, Hong was initially relieved when La Verne Police reported his Cessna had been found two days later at the Brackett Field Airport.

According to plane-tracking site Flight Aware, Hong’s plane initially took off from the Corona airport on the morning of July 26 for a 51-minute trip to Palm Springs. It then departed for a brief 22-minute flight to the Bracket Field Airport.

The frustrated 75-year-old decided to pull the battery from the plane until he could come back to clean the cockpit and inspect it.

But when he returned on Aug. 3, Hong found the plane missing again, with police locating the stolen aircraft now parked at the San Gabriel Valley Airport.

“This plane just keeps disappearing out of the blue,” Sgt. Robert Montanez of the Corona Police Department told the outlet. “It’s just weird.”

Once Hong got to the San Gabriel Valley Airport, the mystery only deepened after he found a new headset and battery inside the plane, meaning the thief had to spend a significant amount of money to get it flying again.

Hong also learned from regulars at the airport that they had seen a woman flying his plane around San Gabriel Valley multiple times in July.

While one witness claimed the thief was a woman who appeared to be in her 40s or 50s and about 5’3″, police noted that there is no video available to show who stole the plane.

As police continue to investigate the circumstances of the repeated robberies, Hong found a silver lining in meeting the staff and regulars at the San Gabriel Valley Airport.

“This has better people,” Hong said. “Better lounge than Corona. A little bit farther, but this airport can be my home base,” Hong told local KCAL News.