OT: Michigan Student possibly involved in 'Ghost Plane' crash
A developing story about a plane crashing in Ontario with no sign of a pilot inside. Police have traced the plane back to a missing U of M graduate student.
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2017/03/missing_um_student_rented_plan.html
http://jalopnik.com/this-ghost-plane-crash-is-one-of-the-weirdest-mysteri-1793462770
I took a plane ride in Ann Arbor with another grad student who rented a plane. It was cool flying over Ann Arbor and Michigan stadium.
It was not hard for him to rent the plane, but yes he had to have a pilot's license and meaningful flight time to do it.
This may be a little out there theory wise and treads into the no politics rule but given that its a graduate student I wouldn't be shocked if it turned out to be an international student who was nervous about being able to stay/get in and out of the US in the current climate and jumped out as a way to sneak into canada.
The Canadian border isn't THAT hard to cross. Large sections of it aren't patrolled at all.
It's ridiculously easy. I take my boat over to Pele Island about two-three times a summer to visit their winery and listen to music. When I arrive in Canada I call somebody on the phone in Toronto and read to them my passport information and give them my boat registration number. They ask me how many people on board and if I've got passengers without passports I lie and give them a lower number.
When I return to the states I again call a number and because I've got a GOES card (I've been vetted for international travel) all I do is tell them I'm home and confirm the boat registration. I could have 100 angry terrrorists on board and nobody would ever know.
I remember blasting across Lake Ontario in the coach boat to pick up cheap dip in Youngstown NY without reporting once. The next time we did it, USCG stopped us to ask if we would be reporting in this time, as they recognised the engines signature from the last time.
The smuggling continued, but it was by the book from then on.
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:07 AM ^
March 22nd, 2017 at 10:53 AM ^
all you had to do to get back in was wake up enough from your drunken stupor to mutter US. The good ol days.
Please tell me you're kidding.
We're in Michigan. Renting a kayak would have been a bit easier, no?
Me thinks more like way out there. Oxygen is our friend. :)
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:10 AM ^
to the microwave...
Do we know if Maverick is ok?
Canadian geezers and Tragically Hip fans will get the reference:
They didn't win another ... 'til 1962
The year he was discovered
You've gotta first be checked out in an airplane 99.9% of the time. Meaning someone (usually a flight instructor) validate's your credientals then flies with you and saus you can do what you say you can. Then you sign a long lengthy renter agreement, most people carry their own personal renters insurance. Then you rent the plane. Not just anyone can walk up and rent it. Stop thinking planes are like cars their not.... You can't just walk up to Avis and say yeah I'd like to rent a Cessna today.
and say "Yeah, I'd like to rent a Cessna today." ;)
Maybe the pilot just wanted to take it to the next level?
March 22nd, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
She started jackin me off while she was suckin my thang
March 21st, 2017 at 11:33 PM ^
Its not really widely reported but dozens of people spontaneously combust each year
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:15 AM ^
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:41 AM ^
It's also possible the pilot was killed in a bizarre gardening accident.