A Hungarian man is accused of stealing a small plane, flying it and landing while intoxicated and then trying to take the car of a passerby who stopped to help him.
The Hungarian National Police received word of a plane landing in a sunflower field in Gerjen, Hungary, 69 miles southwest of the capital Budapest on Saturday morning.
The man flying the plane, police alleged, had taken it from an airport in Kalocsa, Hungary, less than 5 miles to the northeast. The police made no mention of injuries to the man or others.
After making an emergency landing, the alleged 24-year-old plane thief and impromptu pilot, whom Hungarian authorities did not name, started walking away dazed and confused. When a motorist stopped to help the man, the 24-year-old got into the car and unsuccessfully tried to drive away, police said.
Hungarian law enforcement said that the man was so drunk at the time of the incident that he did not remember anything upon being questioned Sunday, according to Hungarian news site Index.
The police said that they are investigating whether he was just drunk or had taken another substance along with alcohol. He is facing charges of arbitrary seizure of a vehicle, among others.
Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said in a Facebook post that the man was flying toward Paks, Hungary, about 9 miles to the northwest of Kalocsa.
The town is the site of the country’s only nuclear power plant, and supplies almost half of all of Hungary’s electricity, according to Reuters.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.