Teen Tried to Steal American Airlines Regional Jet. He Wanted to Fly to a Rap Concert.

by Gary Leff

A teenager — who doesn’t know how to fly — was held in jail on Wednesday for trying to steal an American Airlines plane before dawn on the Fourth of July so he could fly to a rap concert.

The 18 year old boy was arrested inside the cockpit of a 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140 operated by American Airlines wholly-owned regional carrier Envoy Air. He had hopped the fence of the Texarkana Regional Airport near the Arkansas border with Texas.


Credit: Texarkana Regional Airport

He’s been charged with burglary and attempted theft for trying to steal the American Eagle plane “to fly to an out-of-state rap concert.” Bond was set for $25,000.

Though the teen had absolutely no experience piloting any aircraft, he told police that he “didn’t think there was much more to [it] than pushing buttons and pulling levers.”

(HT: Demetrius)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. You’d think he’s at least brush up on flight simulator or something if he was smart….wait he’s a rap fan so that tells us something.

    Or maybe…. the rap concert was just an excuse. Zeamarcius Devon Scott may actually be a top tier elite AA flyer with millions of AA miles but he hasn’t been able to find any premium cabin award space to Europe. Or at least without a mixed cabin award like TXK-DFW in “first” and DFW-LHR on BA with $2,000 in YQ in economy so he was just taking matters into his own hands.

    I also wonder if he has a “rap” sheet a mile long.

  3. If you steal an aircraft and fly to a concert, can you then claim miles for the trip?

  10. The bigger issue not really covered here is the security concern! Jumping a fence! If a teenager can do it…..who else has/can ??

  11. Ric, have you been to small -town Texas? Everyone in town would know what you ate at Dairy Queen within hours

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