Charred remnants of stolen vintage plane found in Long Beach; Owner's nonprofit mission delayed
TORRANCE, Calif. - After an exhaustive search, the charred remnants of a vintage airplane were found in Long Beach after being set on fire and dumped near a homeless encampment, days after it had been taken from Torrance.
On Wednesday, Jan. 3rd, security cameras captured a white pickup truck driving into a Torrance parking lot where the plane was being stored in a custom Airstream trailer. The thief hitched up the trailer and drove away.
Anis Pradhan had put decades worth of work into rebuilding the beloved 1940s plane, which he packed into the Airstream to ship to his home country of Nepal for a nonprofit mission. He spent the last few days searching for the Airstream by plane, motorcycle, and car; baffled by its disappearance. Over the weekend, someone sent him a photo of a burnt-out Airstream near W. 16th Street and Daisy Avenue in Long Beach — the fuselage of the plane visible inside. But by the time he got there, only the frame of the trailer was left.
"It was all cut up and gone. Just a bunch of burned, charred stuff on the ground and what you see left of the frame of the trailer from the bottom," he said, standing near the frame which he and his brother brought to Torrance Airport from Long Beach. "Nothing went through my mind, but tears came out of my eyes."
To add insult to injury, he said police threatened to ticket the trailer for being parked illegally when they arrived hours later. Long Beach Police declined to comment, but referred FOX 11 to The Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor division, which is handling the case. Harbor Division officials said they haven’t received information from Long Beach regarding the case yet.
The plane was ready to be shipped to Nepal, where Pradhan was heading in March to train underprivileged kids for careers in aviation.
"It’s not really just about flying, it was about building aircrafts, maintaining aircrafts, general aviation maintenance, and so on. And that whole thing is going to be on hold now," Pradhan said.
He says he’s devastated on multiple levels, mostly for the people he hoped to help in Nepal. He plans to start over, so he can continue his nonprofit work. He's raising funds to help with his goals through a GoFundMe campaign, which can be found by tapping or clicking here.
LAPD’s Harbor Division says the case is under investigation.