(a) Every person who willfully injures or tampers with any aircraft or the contents or parts thereof, or removes any part of or from an aircraft without the consent of the owner, and every person who, with intent to commit any malicious mischief, injury or other crime, climbs into or upon an aircraft or attempts to manipulate any of the controls, starting mechanism, brakes or other mechanism or device of an aircraft while it is at rest and unattended or who sets in motion any aircraft while it is at rest and unattended, is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(b) Every person who willfully and maliciously damages, injures, or destroys any aircraft, or the contents or any part thereof, in such a manner as to render the aircraft unsafe for those flight operations for which it is designed and equipped is punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 420. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.)