Russell Brothers, Jr., stands next to the vintage Beechcraft G18S airplane that he guided to a belly-slide landing at Cornelia Fort Airpark on April 21, 2012.
Provided by Russell Brothers, Jr.
Russell Brothers, a septuagenarian, convicted drug smuggler, gun hoarder and pilot, turned himself in at a federal prison on Tuesday.
This time, Brothers, 78, will spend a year and three months in a federal prison and then do a year on probation, according to federal court records. According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, Brothers is serving his term at a facility in Lexington, Ky.
Brothers is no stranger to life behind bars.
He was convicted in Florida on drug trafficking charges in 1988 and again in 1993 on trafficking and money laundering counts. In one judge’s words, the “giant among giants” in international smuggling served 11 years in prison for running cocaine between Florida and the Bahamas.
Earlier this year, Brothers pleaded guilty in federal court in Nashville to three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of attempted obstruction of justice. Court papers say his surrender date was delayed because he is in poor health and underwent surgeries.
Authorities found a slew of weapons at Brothers' home in Burns after a series of events reminiscent of a television crime drama.
Trouble began again for Brothers after he safely belly-landed his 1961 twin-engine Beechcraft airplane at the defunct Cornelia Fort Airpark on April 20, 2012.
Although Brothers didn’t alert authorities, his unmistakable silver airplane and long association with the small airfield led police to him two days later.
Six days later, a search of his home turned up 16 guns, including revolvers, rifles and a shotgun, authorities said. He gave one gun to another man and asked him to lie to investigators, and squirreled another away at a relative’s house, prompting the other charges, according to court records.
Source: http://www.tennessean.com
Beechcraft G18S, Great American Transportation Co., Inc., N6B: Incident occurred April 21, 2012 at Cornelia Fort Air Park (M88), East Nashville, Tennessee
http://registry.faa.gov/N6B
This time, Brothers, 78, will spend a year and three months in a federal prison and then do a year on probation, according to federal court records. According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, Brothers is serving his term at a facility in Lexington, Ky.
Brothers is no stranger to life behind bars.
He was convicted in Florida on drug trafficking charges in 1988 and again in 1993 on trafficking and money laundering counts. In one judge’s words, the “giant among giants” in international smuggling served 11 years in prison for running cocaine between Florida and the Bahamas.
Earlier this year, Brothers pleaded guilty in federal court in Nashville to three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of attempted obstruction of justice. Court papers say his surrender date was delayed because he is in poor health and underwent surgeries.
Authorities found a slew of weapons at Brothers' home in Burns after a series of events reminiscent of a television crime drama.
Trouble began again for Brothers after he safely belly-landed his 1961 twin-engine Beechcraft airplane at the defunct Cornelia Fort Airpark on April 20, 2012.
Although Brothers didn’t alert authorities, his unmistakable silver airplane and long association with the small airfield led police to him two days later.
Six days later, a search of his home turned up 16 guns, including revolvers, rifles and a shotgun, authorities said. He gave one gun to another man and asked him to lie to investigators, and squirreled another away at a relative’s house, prompting the other charges, according to court records.
Source: http://www.tennessean.com
Beechcraft G18S, Great American Transportation Co., Inc., N6B: Incident occurred April 21, 2012 at Cornelia Fort Air Park (M88), East Nashville, Tennessee
http://registry.faa.gov/N6B
FAA IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 6B Make/Model: BE18 Description: 18
Date: 04/22/2012 Time: 0000
Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
City: NASHVILLE State: TN Country: US
DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT FOUND GEAR UP IN THE GRASS AT THE CLOSED CORNELIA FORT AIRPORT,
NEAR NASHVILLE, TN
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk: 1
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: OTHER
FAA FSDO: NASHVILLE, TN (CE19) Entry date: 04/23/2012
Flying through rain in the dark before midnight on Friday, a
74-year-old pilot said he used the lights of Opryland to guide his
vintage airplane to a smooth belly landing on a grass strip at a
shuttered airport in East Nashville, landing without injury but stirring
up questions about his past.
He was alone and uninjured at an airstrip he’d flown to for more than 50 years before it closed. He said he called his wife to pick him up and they rode back to Burns, Tennessee, leaving the airplane behind as a mystery for police.
“We were just both thankful that I wasn’t hurt and that was all we talked about,” Brothers said by phone this morning.
He said he was flying Friday from Miami to Dickson, Tennessee, near his home. When his landing gear did not work, Brothers thought of the only grass strip he knew in Nashville.
“When your gear won’t come down, you don’t pull it over to the side of the road and call the wrecker,” Brothers said. “That field was the most appropriate place to put it down.”
He knew it’d be smooth because of the years he spent as air traffic manager at the airpark.
“There were no lights, but I had been flying in and out of that place 55 years and was familiar with the terrain and geography,” he said. “We used Opryland as an approach fix, and so then I flew out over Old Hickory Lake to Opryland and all the lights and made an approach into the strip.”
Brothers said he wasn’t scared.
“I’m Christian and I prayed about this obviously and felt that my safety was in the hands of the Lord,” he said. “I was concerned about tearing up my airplane. That was the main thing on my mind.
“People are not calm in situations like this, but you gotta do what you gotta do,” he said. “I don’t want to sound cavalier, but when you’ve been flying as long as I have you’re going to find situation like this that occur.”
Brothers wrote an account of the night for the Federal Aviation Administration and Metro Nashville police.
Unusual landing raises questions about pilot's past
Don Aaron, police spokesman, said a Metro Parks Department maintenance worker found the plane Saturday and notified police the next day when it had not moved.
Aaron said officers hope to meet with Brothers in the coming week — the latest in Brothers’ long history of encounters with police. In 1988, he was convicted of international drug smuggling, having brought 1.5 tons of cocaine into South Florida. He served 11 years in prison as part of a 60-year sentence.
Brothers said he wasn’t carrying drugs Friday.
“I certainly don’t want any more part of that,” Brothers said. “Like a lot of men in their midlife crisis, they forget about what is important in their life, and I did.
“I hurt my family then and I certainly don’t want to go through that again,” Brothers said. “It’s not a remote option.”
As for the potential police interview, he said he’d be glad to talk with them.
“I have nothing to hide,” he said.
Brothers said he reported the airplane Saturday to a Metro Parks employee who he knows. That information did not make it to law enforcement until Sunday.
“When I was out there in the field Sunday afternoon nobody knew whose it was,” Aaron said.
Brothers grew up in Belle Meade, attended Vanderbilt University and lived at the Airpark before losing his home in the 2010 flood.
FAA records show Brothers received his first pilot’s license in 1966, but that he is not current on the accompanying medical certificate that is required to fly. Asked if he should not have been flying without it, he said that is “essentially correct.”
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Metro Police and the Federal Aviation Administration are working to identify the pilot who landed a 1961 Beechcraft twin-engine airplane on the grass at the closed Cornelia Fort Airpark in East Nashville.
The plane has been on the runway since at least yesterday, when it was first discovered by a Metro Parks employee.
When the landing gear became inoperable, police said, the pilot apparently cut the engines before belly landingin a large grassy area adjacent to the runway.
The propellers and engines show obvious damage.
The plane is registered to Great American Transportation, Inc., which lists its address as Cornelia Fort Airpark.
Metro police have no information about who or what was onboard the airplane and there is no indication that anyone was seriously injured.
No cargo or contraband was located when officers arrived Sunday.
Metro officers and the FAA are working to determine the plane’s whereabouts over the last several weeks.
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