14 Year Old Boy Takes Joy-Flight
It's bad enough we pilots face an ignorant public who think of us as spoiled rich boys playing with our expensive toys. It's worse that we have pilots busting the DC ADIZ. You might say we suffer an image problem.
It doesn't help to leave your plane unlocked with the keys sitting in plain sight. I know how it is down South. I've known people "back home" (Georgia will always be "home") who never took the keys out of their car's ignition. But a plane's a bit of a different beast - especially after 9/11.
We have legislators and newspaper editors clamoring for airline-style security for every podunk airport in the country where X-ray machines, high fences topped with barbed wire and gates with electronic key cards would become the norm.
Now a "good ol' boy" in Alabama left the keys in his Cessna 152. That would normally be an issue between just him and his insurance company, but this night a 14-year-old boy stole his mother's van, drove to the airport and found "Bubba's" plane ready to fly. So he did. Having never been in a plane before, this teenager started taxiing and ended up taking off and operating the thing for about 30 minutes (Hobbs time, not necessarily flight time).
Folks, please lock your planes. If your model doesn't have door locks, find a control lock and/or throttle lock. These items are not expensive, don't take but a few seconds to un/lock and may prevent theft of your plane.
At the very least, it would help convince the ignorant public we "spoiled brat" pilots aren't entirely careless.