18 year old Colton Harris-Moore is suspected of stealing at least three small private planes – he flies off with them. And then he crashes them. Well, at least one of them, but then, he’s never had a flying lesson so there you go.

Anyway, he’s got some Facebook fans (quelle surprise) who liken him to “Jesse James – without the murders” (plug time: if you want to read more about the real, murderous Jesse, and learn how you can see his ghost, see Rick’s Halloween post on the subject).

Where was I? Oh, yeah, the kid – anyway, police consider this kid a fugitive – he was doing time in a juvenile facility for other misdeeds, then walked away from his half-way house – and now he sort of lives in the wilds of the Northwest – out in the woods or in empty cabins.

Gotta love mothers – Colton’s mother says, her baby hasn’t been stealing any planes, adding “Wouldn’t you need a little bit of training in flying a plane? They’re not easy.”

No, they’re not, Mom. That’s why he crashed that last one. Allegedly.

We told you about Ashton and Demi and their rough landing earlier this summer – now let us tell you about Brooke and Belushi!

Okay, not much to tell, but that didn’t stop People magazine from blogging about it – anyway, it seems Brooke Shields and Jim Belushi were on a Cessna, which landed at a little private airstrip at Hearst Castle in San Simeon (and, if you haven’t been to this coastal California landmark, you really should go – it’s just beautiful).

Anyway, the pilot didn’t turn on the brakes (maybe, “turn on” is the wrong expression, but they were not doing their job) and the little plane hit an SUV and – BOOM went the dynamite.

Okay, maybe not quite “boom” but the plane broke its mirror and gave the vehicle a good scrape, but there were no injuries. Except to the SUV. And it was a rental.

Why were these celebs there in the first place? “Attending a private function” according to People – and goodness knows what that could mean.

On Oct. 15,1955, a Lockheed T-33 jet trainer, with two Air Force pilots onboard, went missing.

The plane was presumed “lost at sea” all these years – and it was – but not very far. According to CNN, members of an aviation wreckage search group called UB88.org, found it in the bottom of the Santa Monica Bay, just west of Los Angeles.

The searchers did not say if the pilots were still in this wreckage, but apparently their families have been notified, so at least they know – cold comfort that that may be.

Actually, the divers were looking for a different aircraft altogether – a WWII plane that went down in 1944.

But apparently it’s not surprising that they bumped into another missing plane; officials say there are about 2,500 aviation crash sites in and around California – many of them still waiting to be discovered.

It is, after all, a big state.

Next time you’re in San Francisco International, check out one of the three new “Climate Passport” kiosks there.

Know what you do with them? You stick your credit card in, and it’ll calculate a fee that will offset the emissions of your flight – it’ll then deduct that amount from your card. Is that genius or what? Even more genius-y – you don’t have to pay this fee. That’s right – it’s voluntary!

But if you did want to pay, the fee for a flight from SFO to JFK would run you about $23 -money that would be used for reforestation projects.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, go for it. The airport has already shelled out close to $200K on these kiosks, and would probably like to know their work hasn’t been in vain.

It’s always fun seeing the words “drunken socialite” in print, and thanks to the New York Daily News, we can.

Witnesses in a court proceeding say Clare Irby, “a descendant of the Guinness brewing family” got a little frisky on a flight from Bangalore, India to London on Kingfisher Airlines (a five star airline, naturally). She allegedly got extra-friendly with a male passenger – in between bouts of screaming at flight attendants and ignoring her two year old child.

And at least some of the passengers started complaining about the PDAP’s (Public Displays of Affection on Planes).

The most shocking thing? Not the alleged thong-baring, but the fact that Socialite Irby – who admitted to being tipsy – was not lapping up stout. She was drinking red wine – and I’m sure there’s a Guinness or two rolling over in the Old Sod as we speak.

And…speaking of Guinness – did you know the Dublin-based brewery is celebrating its 250^th anniversary this year? Raise a glass – and keep your undies out of sight.

Just read a “reporter’s notebook” item in the LA Times that made journalism sound — for a moment, anyway — fun again.

It seems LAX – the nation’s third busiest airport – is now using a $600,000 simulator to help train air traffic controllers.

It sounds pretty cool: it’s got computer screens with planes on them, and you can program the simulator to make the planes do anything – taxi, land, crash – or just follow realistic patterns, but it’s up to the trainee to get all safely on the ground.

Apparently, reporter Dan Weikel and other scribes and newsies on hand who worked the simulator did a pretty good job – as they say, “safety was never compromised”. I guess reporting has changed since I left – I wouldn’t have trusted us with anything more than pen and paper.

We get letters…

Unfortunately, we don’t get any near as good as “Dear Amy” gets – like the one from the woman who believed her sleeping seatmate on a recent flight was in a “near-coma”. Even worse, just before take-off, the Dozing One was seen taking a pill!

Boy did that get the letter writer worried:

“I tried several times to politely rouse her, but the only time she woke up was for the meal. I’ve been thinking that maybe it was a potential safety issue. Should I have asked her what she was taking when I saw the pills? Should I have told the flight attendants?” -from Dear Amy, 8-19-09

Amy responded by saying, if the woman actually was in a “near-coma” or had to get up, then yes, a flight attendant should have been notified.

Really? Raise your hand if you can tell the difference between “near-coma” and drool-leaking sleep. I didn’t think so. Here’s my response:

“You tried several times to ‘politely rouse her’ and she didn’t take a swing at you? Count your blessings, lady. Besides, she got up for a meal – I’m pretty sure the nearly-dead don’t do that. And – you wondered if you should have asked ‘what she was taking’ when you saw the pills – why, were you hoping she’d share? I doubt she would have, not after all that ‘polite rousing’. And sure, you could have ‘told the flight attendants’ – but I suspect they wish all their passengers were near-comatose, and would have chastised you for the ‘polite rousing’.” -Standard Upright Position, 8-20-09

Well, would you be happy?

As Gadling tells it, 70 passengers “refused to board their Thomas Cook plane in Mallorca, Spain this week because the airline had asked them to all sit in the back of the plane.”

Essentially, they were to act as ballast – a counterweight, if you will, for all the luggage that was stacked up in the front of the cabin. Why was it stacked there? Because the workers on the ground couldn’t get the rear cargo door open. I guess they lost the manual.

I suppose I would have been disturbed, too – but these folks then paid hundreds of dollars to fly other airlines home. Now that would have given me pause.

So you’ve never heard of Wizz Air?

Airbus has – and I’m sure they love Wizz Air, especially since the airline said it plans to buy 50 Airbus A320’s – for nearly $4 billion (at least, that’s the total according to list prices, but maybe those Wizzards cut a deal).

Wizz Air who? It’s a Hungarian budget airline that flies all over Europe – including places like Kyiv, Timisoara, Poznan as well as London, Paris and more. The CEO of Airbus calls it the “EasyJet of Central and Eastern Europe” and notes that it’s growing at a rate of 30% despite the fact that these are dog days for airlines.

Maybe they really are wizards.

Nobody’s quite sure why the driver of a construction vehicle at Boston’s Logan airport failed to stop at the runway like you’re supposed to, and why he failed to radio the control tower for permission to cross, like you’re supposed to.

He just headed on across runway, happy as can be – as US Airways Flight 27 was taking off for Phoenix. They came within seconds of an intense, fiery meeting. Near total fail.

Fortunately, the plane missed him, but this driver may be in a spot of trouble. The FAA is involved and nobody’s happy – I’m guessing the pilot who saw his life flashing before his eyes (and the lives of his 84 passengers) was probably unhappiest of all.

No word yet on why Mr. Oblivious drove where he drove, but one report says they will be looking into cell phone use. Or was he reading “Driving for Dummies” on his Kindle?