MIAMI (AFP) — FBI agents on Friday said they were investigating the abduction of a 26 year-old airplane pilot in the southern state of Florida.

The pilot, identified as Robert Wiles, was kidnapped April 1 at the Lakeland Linder regional airport, near the central Florida city of Tampa, Federal Bureau of Investigations agents said at a press conference with local media.

Wiles is in charge of business affairs at a family company that maintains and services airplanes, the Tampa Tribune newspaper reported on its Internet website.

“We have a ransom situation here. In the United States, kidnappings for ransom are very rare,” said FBI spokesman David Couvertier.