Remember the case of Adam Dylan Leon? Back in April, the 31-year-old stole a Cessna from his flight school in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and piloted the aircraft into the United States airspace.
Leon's flight scared the bejesus out of the Department of Defense, which tracked the plane with fighter jets fearing that it might be a terrorist plot.
With officials unable to make radio contact with the Cessna, Leon was able to pilot the plane all the way to Ellsinore, Missouri. That's where he landed the aircraft on a highway and was arrested minutes later at a nearby grocery store.
He told the arresting officer he wanted to kill himself and had hoped the jets would shoot him down.
Leon was sentenced today in federal court in St. Louis to two years of
prison for admitting to felony counts of interstate transportation of
stolen aircraft and illegal entry into the U.S.
Roland Corvington, special agent in charge of the FBI in St. Louis,
said: "This turned out not to be a terrorist act and fortunately no one
got hurt. But today's sentencing shows how the FBI and its partners
take national security seriously by dedicating unlimited hours and
resources needed to resolve what was a threat at the time."
© 2023 Riverfront Times
