TURNER – Cedric Abbott was in his antique car, getting ready to join a parade in Old Town, when his son called to make sure he hadn’t decided to go for a airplane ride instead.

Police called Abbott’s son Sunday morning after someone spotted his father’s Cessna 150 taking off from Twitchell’s Airport in the dense fog.

At that point, the two-seater plane was still in the air headed toward the Canadian border. After talking to his son, Abbott contacted police to assure them that he wasn’t in the plane and that he hadn’t given anyone permission to fly it.

About two hours later, a farmer in Canada watched as the shiny white plane with yellow and blue trim crashed into a field in a small town outside Montreal.

The person flying the plane survived the crash and was taken to the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and interviewed by police.

Police say Jason Begin was most likely headed from Montreal when he ran out of gas, possibly to escape charges of unlawful sexual contact and gross sexual assault pending against him in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

Begin, 25, of Howe Street in Lewiston, was released on bail last May and was awaiting his trial. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of gross sexual assault.

“We’re still looking into exactly what his intentions were in stealing the plane,” said Sgt. William Gagne, a detective for the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department.

Begin does not have a pilot’s license. Police believe he may have taught himself how to fly by using a computer program.

They say he hot-wired the plane, most likely by using a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

After Begin was released from the hospital, he was transported to jail. He appeared in a Canadian courthouse Monday morning on immigration and stolen-property charges.

Monday afternoon, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department issued a warrant charging him with theft and violation of his bail conditions.

Begin will be extradited to Maine to face all of his charges as soon as the Canadian courts are finished with him, Gagne said.

Abbott didn’t find out about the crash until he returned home to Buckfield about 4 p.m. Sunday. The plane was valued at $24,000, and Abbott does not have insurance to cover it.

Police say they do not know why Begin chose Abbott’s 1976 Cessna. Abbott has an idea, however.

A self-employed airplane mechanic, he bought the plane five years ago and worked on it for four years before it was ready for the air. Among the many repairs, he gave it a fresh coat of paint.

“It was probably the shiniest plane there, and it probably had the most fuel in it,” he said.

lchmelecki@sunjournal