Armed Gang Makes Off With Loot

Not again... another spectacular airport robbery in South Africa Thursday morning.

This time, it happened at the airport in Bloemfontein -- where eight to ten masked men, all of them armed, got inside the airport's fenced perimeter. The gang then drove a truck in front of a taxiing Beechcraft Baron (file photo of type, above) and stopped.

"The robbers gained entry to the area when the Coin security van which delivered the cash to the plane left the area," said a police spokesperson to South Africa's Sapa news service.

With the aircraft effectively blocked, one of the armed men jumped up on the plane's wing, opened the passenger door and held a gun on the pilot, while another bandit held a security guard at gunpoint. In just 40-seconds, the 19-year pilot says the robbers grabbed four bags full of money -- which had just been loaded onto the aircraft -- and sped off in a Ford truck.

"The robbers gained entry to the area when the Coin security van which delivered the cash to the plane left the area," said a police spokesperson to South Africa's Sapa news service.

The robbery sparked a massive manhunt, involving local police, highway patrol units, even a law enforcement airplane.

Does this all sound familiar? Back in March... a daring band of robbers held up a South African Airways 747 on the ramp at Johannesburg. While police were able to round up some of the robbers, as many as 10 bad guys still made off with millions in cash.

Oh, and the money recovered from the captured crooks was later stolen, too.

FMI: www.joburg.org.za/metro_police/police_faq.stm