Man accused of stealing small plane before landing, abandoning it on California beach

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Authorities arrested a Florida man Thursday after a small plane stolen from an airport in Northern California was found abandoned on a beach in Half Moon Bay.

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“I’ve been doing this a long time, this is for sure a first,” Javier Acosta, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, told the Los Angeles Times.

Officials with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said they got a report around 5 p.m. of a small plane that landed just south of Poplar Beach. When they arrived, they found the plane “intact and unoccupied,” according to deputies.

A man, identified as 50-year-old Luis Gustavo Aires of Miami, was seen landing the plane and then walking away, investigators said. He was arrested on a charge of theft of an airplane after authorities learned that the plane had been stolen from an airport in Palo Alto.

It was not immediately clear how the aircraft was nabbed.

The plane is owned by a San Mateo-based limited liability company, the Times reported, citing the Federal Aviation Administration. It was a Champion Citabria 150, according to KTVU.

Officials with the sheriff’s office and the Palo Alto Police Department continue to investigate.

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