Owner: Missing Airplane Stolen by Illegal Aliens, Fake Pilot

Thursday, December 18, 2008

By Rita Cant

A small Caribbean airplane that vanished into thin air Monday was allegedly stolen by a fired Dominican Navy cadet who may have been trying to carry illegal immigrants to America, the plane’s owner told FOXNews.com.

Luis Perez, the Puerto Rico-based owner of the aircraft charter company, said his twin-engine plane was stolen by an unlicensed pilot named Adrian Jimenez. Authorities told him Jimenez was a student of the Dominican Republic Armed Forces and a former Navy cadet.

“They took his pilot’s certificate away, because the only certificate he had was a helicopter rating and he was operating airplanes,â€