The suspected pilot of a twin-engine plane found abandoned last week in Waller County with 100 pounds of marijuana aboard had previously parachuted out of another small plane shortly before it crashed in Georgia, authorities said.
Waller County sheriff's deputies identified Barrington Carl Slack, 33, as the pilot of the plane that skidded off the runway at Houston Executive Airport in Waller on Nov. 21. After the crash landing, Slack allegedly disappeared, leaving bundles of marijuana behind.
Slack is charged with possession of marijuana, a second-degree felony. He was arrested at 4 p.m. Monday in Humble while leaving Carino's Italian Restaurant on FM 1960.
The incident in Waller came a little over a year after Slack parachuted to safety from a Rockwell International 112TC aircraft before it slammed into a field near Waynesboro, Ga.
Slack told investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board that he had to bail out after the plane's controls stopped working, but an NTSB report on the crash found no evidence of any mechanical anomalies.
The report notes that Slack, who claimed to be a Marine, had attended a sport parachuting school in Monroe, Ga., four days before the crash.
He showed up wearing a military flight suit and boots, toting his own Softie emergency parachute. An instructor gave him ground orientation, and Slack performed a tandem jump with one of the school's instructors.
When the instructor asked Slack why he needed an emergency parachute, Slack said he was a pilot flying L-39 jets out of Dobbins Air Force Base "acting as the 'rabbit' for other Marine pilots to chase him around the sky and do the dog fights 'Top Gun' style of training," the instructor told investigators.
"The only thing I thought strange was he had not gone to jump school and stated it was not required for the pilots," the instructor said. "... He also indicated during the conversation that the planes he was flying for the Marines did not have ejection seats and if he needed to get out, he would have to climb out."
Marine Corps officials have said that no records indicate Slack ever served with the Corps.
NTSB Identification: ERA11LA033
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Thursday, October 21, 2010 in Waynesboro, GA
Aircraft: ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL 112TC, registration: N1154J
Injuries: 1 Uninjured.
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On October 21, 2010, at 1915 eastern daylight time, a Rockwell International 112TC, N1154J, was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain following an uncontrolled descent near Waynesboro, Georgia. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the flight that departed Covington Municipal Airport (9A1), Covington, Georgia, at 1530, and was destined for Jim Hamilton L.B. Owens Airport (CUB), Columbia, South Carolina. The certificated private pilot/owner intentionally exited the airplane while in flight in the vicinity of Augusta, Georgia, descended via parachute, and was not injured. The personal flight was conducted under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.
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