A Manheim man tried to steal a $170,000 airplane at Donegal Springs Airpark on Monday, police said Tuesday.

Dale Eugene Root, 47, of 22 Crystal Drive, got in the Piper Aerostar around 11:41 a.m. and flipped some switches, Susquehanna Regional police Lt. Stephen W. Englert said. The six-seat plane started and moved about 30 feet before coming to a stop.

"It could have been a disaster," Englert said. "There were other planes parked there, and it was near the gas pumps. I hate to think what could have happened."

Employees at the Marietta airpark at 186 Airport Road heard a plane engine starting and running at higher-than-normal revolutions per minute, and one of them called police, police said. They saw that the plane, owned by Star Child LLC, was occupied by a stranger and that it had been moved.

Root was getting out of the plane and trying to shut the door behind him when an employee approached him and asked what he was doing, Englert said. Police arrived shortly thereafter.

Root was not authorized to be in the plane and does not have a pilot's license, Englert said.

Police arrived and took Root into custody. He was charged with criminal attempt at theft and sent to Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail.

"We're not sure what his motive was," Englert said.

"One story he said was that he was thinking of taking flying lessons," he said. "There is no indication he was trying to hurt anyone."

But Englert added: "We don't know what he would have done next. He was coming off, but he was still on that plane."

Joel Stout of Donegal Springs Airpark declined comment Tuesday.

This wasn't Root's first time entering a plane at an airport.

In May 2000, Root walked onto the tarmac at Lancaster Airport and boarded a US Airways plane without a ticket, Manheim Township police Sgt. Tom Rudzinski said.

Root asked personnel on the plane to take him to Russia, and they removed him from the plane, Rudzinski said. Federal authorities declined to prosecute.

Root also has had other "extensive contact" with police, Englert said. He declined to give more detail.

rrobinson@lnpnews.com