An audacious theft in broad daylight sees an Idaho man grounded and behind bars after allegedly stealing a small plane from a Las Vegas hangar and piloting it across state lines, authorities report. According to KTLA, Damian Zukaitis, 40, of Boise, Idaho, sparked a high-flying drama when the stolen aircraft, owned by Nevada resident Jeff Cohn, was reported missing following a triggered emergency beacon: signaling a potential crash.
Zukaitis's escapade took a nosedive near Barstow-Daggett Airport, San Bernardino County when the FAA notified local authorities of the aircraft's unexpected landing, and deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department found Zukaitis taxiing the plane along Minneola Road before he attempted a getaway on foot after the plane, a Kitfox worth about $80,000, was spotted not far from Daggett Airport. He abandoned the aircraft and fled, but was swiftly detained. "Jeff advised [Air Force Search and Rescue officials] that he was not flying his aircraft and immediately drove to his hangar in North Las Vegas where he discovered the aircraft was not in the hangar," the SBSD stated in a report obtained by KTLA.
Zukaitis now faces charges for bringing stolen property into the state and stealing an aircraft, and he was promptly booked at the Barstow Jail following the incident on December 30, 2023. In a summary announced by the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department, Deputy D. Johnson was referenced where Zukaitis's less-than-stealthy disappearance from a North Las Vegas hangar to the landing east of Daggett Airport lays out a clear trajectory of criminal behavior.
As the planes of justice begin to align, a joint investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the North Las Vegas Police Department, and the FBI ensues, promising a thorough examination of the circumstances surrounding this brazen airborne larceny, Zukaitis will now have to navigate the legal system as the North Las Vegas Police Department takes charge of the ongoing investigation into the stolen aircraft. The extraordinary incident left the local aviation community puzzled and concerned about hangar security, with one questioning flight of fantasy coming to a resolute end on the tarmac of reality, while the original owner comes to terms with the unusual disappearance and retrieval of his personal aircraft, as indicated by KTLA and further information from a sheriff's department report.
