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A Canadian man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for stealing a plane in Canada and flying over three states before landing along a dark highway in southern Missouri. The man, Adam D. Leon, 31, had admitted in August to the charges he had faced: interstate transportation of a stolen aircraft, importation of a stolen aircraft and illegal entry. He admitted that on April 6, he stole a four-seat Cessna 172 from his Thunder Bay, Ontario, flight school and crossed the United States border. He landed the plane more than seven hours later on a road off Highway 60 near Ellsinore. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that longtime fugitive Luis Armando Pena Soltren has pleaded not guilty for the crime he was accused of. The fugitive was accused of hijacking Pan American Flight 281 through the use of weapons that were hidden in a diaper bag in 1968 and diverting the flight to Cuba where he stayed for four decades. Soltren was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport after he decided to return home to see his wife and other relatives.

Discusses the rise in private-plane heists in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Number of US-registered planes stolen in the US in 1997, according to Aviation Crime Prevention Institute Inc.; The theft of retired race-car driver Bobby Unser's Cessna 206 single-engine plane while in Mexico; The one clue pointing to traffickers.