From today's Miami Herald:

[link|http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/dade/digdocs/053391.htm|[link|http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/dade/digdocs/053391.htm|http://www.miami.co...s/053391.htm]]

Published Wednesday, August 1, 2001


Wayward pilot takes small plane to Cuba BY JENNIFER BABSON, CHARLES
FORELLE AND MARTIN MERZER mmerzer@herald.com

A novice pilot who once staged his own disappearance from Nevada and most
recently worked at a Pizza Hut near Marathon's airport in the Florida Keys
stole a single-engine plane Tuesday and crash-landed it near Havana,
walking away dazed, authorities said.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office identified the wayward pilot of the
solo flight as Milo John Reese, 55. He gained attention -- and notoriety
-- in Reno, Nev., as an anti-prostitution crusader. In recent days, he
delivered pepperoni pies for the Pizza Hut in Marathon.

`Ed, this doesn't feel right,'' Reese radioed his flight instructor at
Florida Keys Marathon Airport just before he swept toward the horizon.

It apparently was a reference to what Reese claimed would be his first
solo landing. And it might have been. Police said Reese had a history of
mental illness and often pretended to be a pilot.

Witnesses in Cuba said the plane attempted to land on a road near the town
of Cojmar, east of Havana, but hit a rocky patch of coast, broke its
landing gear and overturned just a few yards from the sea.

The pilot walked away in an apparent daze. Police took him into custody,
witnesses said.

Fabian Molina Herrera, a 19-year-old student, said the pilot appeared to
have scratches on his arms.

`He said his name was Juan Miguel, that he was from Florida and he asked
for some water,'' Molina said.


FAMILIAR NAME

Juan Miguel is the name of the father of Elian Gonzalez, the shipwrecked
boy whose eventual return from South Florida to Cuba made headlines last
year.

The Cuban government did not immediately confirm Reese's arrival or
detention. `We're in contact with Cuban authorities,'' said Chris Lamora,
a spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. He
declined to comment further.

Reese's motive was not known, but his reputation was.

`He was not what I considered stable,'' said Rob Grant, who owns Grant Air
Service in Marathon and had rented planes to Reese -- until earlier this
week, when Grant cut him off.

`He was flaky. As we say in the business, he was flying with a broken
wing.''

Becky Herrin, a spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, said
Reese has a history of manic depressive behavior.

His wife, Susan Reese of Reno, told police her husband had run away from
home four times, Herrin said.

When he left most recently, on June 14, he wasn't taking his medication,
she said.

He was staying in room 116 at the 15-room Seaward Resort Motel in Marathon
-- $60 per night, according to the owner. Deputies who searched Reese's
hotel room found a book titled How to Fly Cessnas, Herrin said.

`One of the things he does in his episodes is pretend he's a pilot,'' she
said.


TUESDAY'S LUNCH

David Patten, who worked with Reese at Pizza Hut, said he had lunch
Tuesday with the novice pilot. Reese had an order of french fries and two
Budweisers. He asked Patten to accompany him on a flight to Key West.

`He didn't say Cuba, no mention of Cuba,'' Patten said. `I don't believe
he even knew how far it was to Cuba or whatnot.''

The answer: 136 miles.

The white, four-seat Cessna 172 was rented from Paradise Aviation,
according to company officials. The firm is owned by Ed Steigerwald, who
also served as Reese's flight instructor.

Steigerwald spent much of Tuesday night being questioned by the FBI,
according to his wife, Ute. Meanwhile, deputies towed Reese's turquoise
Suzuki out of the airport parking lot.

Ute Steigerwald said her husband described Reese as `perfectly normal'' --
a description at odds with most others -- and confirmed that he worked at
the Pizza Hut, which sits along U.S. 1 on the southern flank of the
airport.

Grant said Reese was well known around the airport and not particularly
well regarded. He had flown about 15 hours with Grant Air, until two or
three days ago, when Grant stopped renting planes to him.

`This guy, as far as I was concerned, was a huge liability,'' Grant said.

In the past, Reese has made headlines in Reno, staging his own
disappearance in 1999 to attract attention to his anti-prostitution
crusade.

Reese apparently tried to make it look as if a brothel owner was behind
his disappearance.


SCHEME UNVEILED

His scheme was discovered when a bank surveillance camera spotted him
making a withdrawal in Sacramento, Calif.

Back in Marathon, Ute Steigerwald said Reese `has flown for about two
weeks, several times a week. He seemed fine, otherwise my husband would
not have let him go on his first solo.''

Reese perfectly executed three practice landings -- with his instructor by
his side -- before being allowed to make his first solo, she said.

She said everything seemed fine until the end of the flight.

`He told my husband he could not land the plane,'' she said.

`He tried to talk him down. He told him: ou're fine. You're 100 feet from
the runway.' ''

Reese headed for the runway, on a northeastward approach on a heading of
70 degrees and at an altitude of 100 feet, witnesses said. But the pilot
suddenly pulled up, increased his speed and turned right, eventually
heading southwest over the Keys -- toward Cuba.

`He would not answer the radio,'' Ute Steigerwald said. `He just stopped
responding.''

Bryan Hanson, the manager of Paradise Aviation, said Reese had logged
close to 20 flight hours with his company.

On Tuesday, Reese `had been up 20 to 30 minutes with the instructor, and
then he turned him loose, and bye-bye, he was gone,'' Hanson said.


, GOSH'

`He said softly on the radio something like , gosh, I'm scared.' ''

Patten, the co-worker at Pizza Hut, said Reese seemed bright and literate.

`I was probably his best friend in town, probably his only friend,''
Patten said. Still, he could not explain Reese's action.

Patten: `Is it possible he did it to be famous?''

A group of U.S. Navy P-3 Orions, on a mission from the Naval Air Station
at Boca Chica in Key West, eventually made visual contact with the Cessna,
according to Navy spokeswoman Susan Barkley.

`They did see it and saw that it went into Cuban airspace,'' she said.

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said
the pilot was not required to register a flight plan with air traffic
controllers and would not have been closely monitored.

`Small planes follow visual flight rules, which means they just steer
clear of other planes that they see,'' Brown said.

U.S. military officers tracked the plane but did nothing to precipitate
any response from the pilot or from Cuba's military, a spokesman said.

`You have to remember, it was going away from the United States, not
toward, so it was just tracked,'' said Maj. Douglas Martin, a spokesman at
the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo.
`Your concern is not as great as something coming toward the United
States.

`But anything that we see going toward the Cuba area is of course of
interest to us.''

He said no response was seen from the Cubans. `We noted that they did not
scramble MiGs,'' he said.

Experts said Cuba might return the plane, but Reese will likely remain in
the hands of Cuban authorities. The reason: no extradition treaty with the
United States.

`What has happened in the past in cases of airliners is that Cuba has kept
the hijackers and supposedly has tried them,'' said Wayne Smith, a retired
U.S. diplomat who served as chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
`Some, we know, have been put out to cut sugar cane.''

Herald staff writers John Barry, Elaine de Valle, Gail Epstein Nieves,
Renato Perez, Nancy San Martin and Luisa Yanez contributed to this report,
as did Herald research editor Elisabeth Donovan and Herald wire services.