Para-Glider Pilot Gets a Deputies’ Landing Reception

CASTAIC — A para-glider pilot attempting to break a distance record instead was set upon by sheriff’s deputies when he made an emergency landing at the Pitchess Detention Center after his non-motorized aircraft began losing altitude, authorities said Saturday.

“It makes a good story: Pilot lands in jail or whatever,” the pilot, Thomas Truax of Carpinteria, joked Saturday night.

“I didn’t realize the jail was there,” Truax said. “I thought it was a business center.”

Truax, 42, left Santa Barbara shortly after noon Friday and was trying to reach the Mojave Desert in his goal to break a para-gliding distance record.

But about four hours later, Truax found himself losing altitude over Lake Piru, just west of the jail compound.

In an effort to find an updraft, Truax widened his orbit, a move that placed him directly above the jail--also the site of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s all-purpose shooting range.

As Truax struggled to gain altitude he caught the attention of the department’s special weapons team, which was training at the range, said Deputy Bob Killeen, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

Recalling the recent escape of a Pitchess inmate from the facility, the deputies grew suspicious of Truax, jumped into their radio-equipped patrol cars and began trailing him.

Meanwhile, a friend of Truax who had been following him by car during his trip was stopped at the front gate of the jail.

The special weapons team continued their pursuit of Truax, who was losing all hope of finding an updraft. Defeated and bewildered, Truax gave up and landed in a field on the northeast side of the compound, where he said he was quickly surrounded by about 15 deputies, one with a gun drawn.

Once they realized he was not involved in an escape plan, the deputies helped Truax load his craft into one of their vehicles and drove him to meet his friend at the gate.

“I think they legitimately thought I was participating in a jail breakout,” Truax said. “Once they found out it was a mistake we shook hands and parted.”

Times staff writer Jose Cardenas contributed to this report.