Mar 4, 2008 3:03 pm US/Mountain
Man Flies Plane Onto Golf Course To Save Time
Son Was Late For Tennis Lesson At Club Across Street
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Police came to the Marriott Resort Crane's Landing Golf Course around 1:50 p.m. Saturday after a call about a plane landing on the course.
Lincolnshire Police Department
A man apparently decided to fly his plane onto a golf course in north suburban Lincolnshire so his teenage son would not be late for a tennis lesson, CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago reports.
Police came to the Marriott Resort Crane's Landing Golf Course, at 10 Marriott Dr. in Lincolnshire, around 1:50 p.m. Saturday for a call that a plane had landed on the course.
Robert Kadera of Lake Villa and his 14-year-old son, Isaac, were standing outside the aircraft, a 1949 Piper Clipper, which was sitting in the middle of the golf course about 20 feet south of the retaining wall that separates the golf course from Route 22, police said.
Kadera said it was not an emergency landing, but rather, the boy was late for his tennis lesson at the Lincolnshire Club across the street from the golf course on Route 22, police said.
Thus the pilot had decided to fly the boy to the golf course and walk across Route 22 to the Lincolnshire Club after landing, police said.
Kadera told police he made several attempts to land before touching down.
"[Kadera] wanted to get back into his plane and take off again," Lincolnshire police Detective John-Erik Anderson said.
But police found out the aircraft was leaking fuel, and investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration also responded.
Ernie's Towing in nearby Vernon Hills used a flatbed trailer with a crane attached to it to tow the plane to their yard, where the plane was impounded for police. Route 22 was shut down during part of the incident and the removal of the plane.
The FAA investigation continues, and the Lake County State's Attorney's office is trying to determine if criminal charges are warranted, police said.
Kadera was at Ernie's Towing Service in Vernon Hills on Monday afternoon, replacing the plane's skis with tires.
He was planning to move the plane off the towing lot.
Kadera told WBBM Newsradio 780 he was thinking that flying to Lincolnshire would be "a convenient way to get (Isaac) down there and get him to his tennis on time."
Isaac is the youngest of 10 children, and Kadera said the house was hectic Saturday and time slipped by, so they figured driving to tennis in Lincolnshire from Lake Villa would have taken too long.
Kadera said he did not think he'd draw as much attention as he did. He quipped that perhaps he should have taken a hot air balloon or a helicopter so he might have been less conspicuous.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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