[plthijinx]

March 4, 2004, 11:21AM

Now sober and in jail, flier says he regrets his stunt
By RICHARD STEWART
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
ANGLETON -- Louis Paul Kadlecek hung his head like a mischievous little boy in trouble. He had no idea why he stole a plane from the Brazoria County Airport and doesn't know why he wasn't hurt when he crashed it into a high power line.

"I was very drunk," he grinned.

Now that he faces spending years in a state prison for his Sunday morning stunt, Kadlecek, 21, said he's learned his lesson and has sworn off drinking.

"I feel lucky to be here," he said at the Brazoria County Jail on Wednesday. "I feel like I've been given a second chance."

He was more than lucky to walk away unhurt after flying the 1969 Cessna 172 a mile and then crashing it into a 100-foot-high electrical line.

"It was a miracle," said Brazoria County Airport Director Louis Jones.

"If stunt pilots tried 1,000 times to do the same thing, they would have been killed 999 times," Jones said.

Kadlecek said flying the plane was pretty easy even though he'd never even been in a plane before.

"It started just like a lawn mower," he said.

Still, he said he wishes he hadn't done it.

If only there had been more security around the airport, Kadlecek said, he might not have just hopped over a three-strand, 4-foot-tall barbed-wire fence and started breaking into the T-hangars.

"If there had even been a tall chain link fence with barbed wire on top of it, I would have just turned around and went on home," he said.

"You would think they would have already thought of that after 9/11."

But then, he admitted, he didn't do much thinking himself on Sunday morning. It was just something to do.

Earlier that night he'd been at a club in Angleton with friends, celebrating his recent 21st birthday. He got out of a car near the airport after getting into an argument with the occupants.

On a whim, he walked to the airport and started breaking into T-hangars. He drove one plane around the hangar. Later, he tried that again, but the engine wouldn't start, so he went to another, smaller plane he'd seen.

With the key in the ignition, the little plane nicknamed "Miss Mona" started right up. He taxied around for a bit, got onto the runway and decided to take it for a spin.

Although police said the manual was on the seat, Kadlecek said he didn't remember looking at it. He did recall revving up the engine and pulling back on the controls when he thought the plane was going fast enough to fly. And it did.

The plane's owner declined to talk to the Chronicle.

Flight instructor Scott Gotcher said he usually handles takeoffs until students have five or six hours experience controlling the plane in the air.

Kadlecek had maybe five or six minutes of experience when he took off.

"The first thing I thought was, now how am I gonna get this thing down?" Kadlecek said.

Like many beginning pilots, he found the controls very sensitive and started zooming up and then down. About the time he thought he had the plane flying level, a set of power lines appeared out of the fog right in front of him.

"I jerked back on the controls, but it was too late," Kadlecek said.

He probably put the plane into a stall, experts said, slowing it dramatically. The plane just stopped in midair, Kadlecek said. "There were flashes of light and electrical sounds."

The tail fell first, absorbing much of the shock as the plane crumpled into the soft, muddy ground. He was sure the plane would catch on fire, but it didn't.

"So I just opened up the door, got out and walked away," he said. "I never looked back."

Kadlecek walked to his home south of Angleton, took a shower and went to bed.

"I knew they were going to catch me," he said.

When a sheriff's department investigator came to take him to the jail for a lineup Tuesday, he took his toothbrush, expecting to stay there.

So far Kadlecek is charged with theft and is being held on $75,000 bond. If convicted, he faces two to 20 years in prison. He also faces an earlier burglary charge and has had other brushes with the law, including driving while intoxicated, driving with a suspended license and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

There may be other burglary charges to file and perhaps federal charges of stealing a plane, investigators said.

Meanwhile, the county is considering putting more fences and security cameras at the airport.

In speculating about his future, Kadlecek said he isn't sure what he'd like to do after he gets out of jail.

"All my life I've wanted to be a helicopter pilot," he said. "That, or maybe a crane operator."