Convict caught after 'Hollywood escape'

The pilot was short on flight experience

Police in the American state of Florida have captured an escaped convict a day after he broke out of jail in a rented helicopter.

The man, who was being held for child sex offences, was discovered with the helicopter pilot near mosquito-infested swamp land close to the Martin Treatment Centre, 64km (40 miles) northwest of Palm Beach, Miami.

The jail is situated close to bug-infested swamp land

In a daring escape on Monday, which officials likened to a Hollywood film, the Robinson 22 helicopter swooped into the grounds of the centre.

The trainee pilot, cleared a four-metre (12-foot) fence, but crashed the chopper near an orange grove 100 metres away.

"It's out of a Hollywood script, isn't it?" a police spokeswoman said.

"He landed in broad daylight, and he [the inmate] ran out like in a movie. But unlike in a movie, they crashed," spokeswoman Janelle Atlas said.

Swamp

Steven Whitsett, 28, and his pilot, Clifford Burkhart, 23, then fled into a nearby swamp.

Police described the men as "armed, dangerous and desperate".

They were captured on Tuesday after an intensive search of orange groves, cattle pastures, forests and steamy, bug-infested swamp with two-metre high grasses.

Ms Atlas described the swamp as teeming with "brush so thick it will tangle your legs, and you can't get through it."

Planning problem

"You've got to assume they're not prepared to survive out there."

She said the breakout did not appear to be well-planned.

"They didn't have food water, clothes. We have water, coffee, air conditioning. We have all the time in the world," she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Mr Burkhart had only been training as a pilot for two months and had only flown one other solo flight.