NASSAU – Police were hunting across a tourist island yesterday for signs of a pilot who vanished after wrecking a small plane in the Bahamas and investigators in the United States turned their suspicions toward an American teenager on the run dubbed “the Barefoot Bandit”.The single-engine Cessna that crashed in shallow waters off Abaco island was apparently stolen from an airport in Bloomington, Indiana. By the time rescuers arrived on Sunday, nobody was inside.The 2009 Cessna 400 Corvalis was stolen over the weekend from the Monroe County Airport, the facility’s manager, Bruce Payton said. It was unclear how the thief got into the airport, which has a ten-foot security fence with barbed wire and coded access gates.United States authorities said the heist has similarities to other thefts attributed to 19-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, a Washington state teenager who has no formal flight training.He is suspected of stealing cars and small airplanes to evade authorities since 2008.An FBI statement posted on the web site of the United States Embassy in Nassau said Harris-Moore may have recent injuries and urged anyone who sees him to contact the nearest Bahamas police station. It said the FBI is offering a 000 reward for information leading to his arrest. (AP)
