Party steals plane for drunken joyride, vanishes without trace

Drunk people do dumb things all the time -- especially when there are other drunk people to egg them on. But a party of Russians, including a local police chief, may have set a new standard with the spontaneous decision to steal a 1947 Antonov-2 biplane and go for a merry joyride around the desolate Ural Mountains. The 12 passengers and its pilot took off without clearance from the Serov aerodrome at about 10pm, a police spokesman said. A search party of six planes has been sweeping a 4,600-square mile area to locate the wreckage and any survivors, to no avail. The passengers -- including two women -- are not answering their cellphones.