Sweet-tooth pilot in sticky Pacific mess

SYDNEY – A “sea crazy” Australian helicopter pilot was arrested on the tiny Pacific outpost of Nauru after illegally landing on the island in search of sweets and soft drinks, a report said Thursday.

The 24-year-old’s helicopter was impounded and he was locked up after parking on a beach near Nauru’s main supermarket while he bought some chocolates and soda, a spokesman for the island’s government said.

He had been stationed on a Taiwanese fishing vessel for more than two months and told police he was going “sea crazy”, Nauru spokesman Rod Henshaw told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“He said ‘look, we’re only a short hop from this island, let’s go and see what we can get in the way of a few snacks’,” Henshaw said of the sugar-starved pilot.

“So he and his passenger hopped aboard this little two-seater and away they went.”

Police were waiting when they returned to the chopper and it was flown to the airport under onboard escort.

The pair were locked in the island’s jail overnight Wednesday and face a maximum Aus$100,000 (US$103,000) fine for unauthorised landing as well as penalties for breaching the Immigration Act.