SD man uses plane banner to propose to girlfriend

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YANKTON (AP) — As Megan Cabalka looked for a deer near a Yankton pedestrian bridge, she glanced up at a plane flying nearby.

It was towing a banner with a request from her boyfriend, Brent Arens: Will you marry me?

The elaborate proposal capped days of plane research and a Thursday morning of white lies — "I told her there was a deer in the trees" to get her in the proper spot, Arens said — but ultimately it was worth it. Cabalka said yes.

Cabalka told the media that she was "very surprised."

Arens bought the engagement ring two days before Christmas, but he didn't want to propose on either Christmas or New Year's.

"That would have been too obvious," he said.

When he saw that Thursday was set to be unseasonably warm, he got an idea to have a plane fly by with a banner. Arens, who owns a construction business, lured Cabalka to the Meridian pedestrian bridge by saying he wanted her to look at a nearby house.

It was a hard sell, Cabalka said: "I'm afraid of heights."

Finding a plane to haul the proposal-bearing banner was harder than Arens had anticipated.

"I thought you just called a crop duster or something, but they don't do that," he said.

Arens searched the Internet, made several phone calls and finally tracked down a pilot based in Council Bluffs, Iowa, who could do the job.

No wedding date has been set.

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