Air Pursuit of Stolen Plane Leads to Arrest of Three Youths

Three teen-agers were arrested in El Monte early Sunday after leading authorities on a high-flying chase in a stolen twin-engine plane, authorities said.

Michael Reed and Jeffery Dudgeon, both 18, and a 17-year-old boy whose name was not released, stole a Cessna from Brackett Field in La Verne 30 miles east of Los Angeles late Saturday night, sheriff’s deputies said.

The arrest ended a flight that took the young men from La Verne about 50 miles northeast over the mountains to Apple Valley Airport, where San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies fired shots at the plane. The youths, making a narrow escape over two patrol cars, struck and damaged a wing. Shortly after midnight, controllers at George Air Force Base contacted the Sheriff’s Department with information that the plane was headed to Apple Valley Airport. Two patrol cars blocked the runway as the plane was touching down, officers said.

“The plane was headed right at the patrol units,” Detective Milt Rose said.

The deputies, trying to disable the craft, fired several shots as the plane skimmed the rooftop of one of the cars, tearing off a small section of wing and shattering the car’s windshield. However, the aircraft continued its flight.

Authorities later learned that Dudgeon was hit in the back by one of the bullets.

A short time later, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a helicopter received word from radar operators that the plane was landing at El Monte Municipal Airport.

Sgt. Ray Davis of the sheriff’s Aerobureau said the teen-agers tried to escape detection by flying the plane without lights, but deputies used an infrared locater system to spot the craft at the airport.

Dudgeon was treated at a local hospital and released to sheriff’s custody. He and Reed were booked at San Bernardino County Jail for investigation of grand theft and assault with a deadly weapon. The younger suspect was turned over to juvenile authorities.