Parachute Pursuit

Roy Beisswenger of Easy Flight Powered Parachutes received a phone call early one morning from Bond County Illinois Sheriff Jeff Brown, requesting aerial assistance from him in locating a stolen car suspect who had been stopped by deputies the night before.

The driver ran away on foot from the stolen car and had hidden in an adjacent cornfield while his passenger was taken into custody by deputies. They kept the area surrounded until daybreak and then asked for help from the powered parachute crew. Roy and his Wisconsin-based co-owner Roger Bean, took off and flew the three miles to the scene where the driver had fled.

Robert making a fly-by

Circling over the cornfield, it was easy to spot the still-hiding suspect among the corn stalks and Roy and Roger radioed the information and directed the deputies to the exact spot where the suspect was still lying. He was subsequently arrested and taken into custody very cold and damp from spending several hours hiding in the cornfield on the ground. The Sheriff was quite impressed and thankful for those fly-boys assistance, and the Greenville, Illinois airport from where the powered parachutes are based and fly from received a police radio to use in the event they are needed again. It was a red-letter day and as far as I know it was the first time a powered parachute vehicle was used in the apprehension of a suspect.

 
Robert E. Kessler
Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Department
Riverview Police Department
Hazelwood, MO
pictured: Roy Beisswenger (l), Robert Kessler