BROOKSVILLE — Airplane management company Jet Concepts has filed an amended complaint against former Hernando airport director Don Silvernell, claiming Silvernell damaged the business in order to ensure a monopoly on fixed-base operator services for a close personal friend.
Jet Concepts and its president, Robert Rey, accuse Silvernell of violations of the Florida Antitrust Act and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Act and of interference with a business relationship.
Last August, Rey filed a lawsuit against Silvernell, accusing him of defamation and interference with a business relationship. A judge dismissed that case, but allowed Rey to file an amended complaint.
In the new complaint, Rey describes how he began to have problems with Silvernell as soon as he moved his business from American Aviation, which for decades had been the only fixed-base operator at Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport. American Aviation is owned by John Petrick, a longtime friend of Silvernell. Rey made the move to the Brooksville Air Center when it opened as a second fixed-base operator in 2009, mostly because it had cheaper fuel.
In the months that followed, Rey says, he heard that potential business partners were being told that he was operating illegally at the airport. When he questioned Silvernell, he was told he needed an operator's permit, which became a challenge to obtain.
After Rey took over management of the Brooksville Air Center as the business struggled financially, Silvernell ordered fueling and other airplane services halted there, according to Rey. He also contacted a website where the air center had placed an advertisement and ordered it be taken down.
Brooksville Air Center ended up in foreclosure, and Hernando County purchased the facility. Rey started talking to another business about opening a new fixed-base operation, but that business walked away after Silvernell discouraged the partnership, Rey says.
"Silvernell attempted to thwart the efforts of Jet Concepts to operate a viable business at the Brooksville airport because he viewed Rey and Jet Concepts as threats to American Aviation,'' according to the complaint.
"Silvernell acted outside the scope of his employment when he sought to protect the virtual monopoly on fixed-base operator services offered by American Aviation,'' it states.
Silvernell's attorney, Joseph Flood, did not immediately respond to a request from the Times for comments.
Source: http://www.tampabay.com
Showing posts with label Courts and Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Courts and Crime. Show all posts
Friday, January 17, 2014
$7.2 Million in Cash Found at Panama Airport: 3 Arrested, 25 Officers Suspended Over Drug Money
$7.2 million in cash was found at a
Panama airport stuffed into eight suitcases this week. Panamanian police
described it as their biggest bust ever, and while three men have been
arrested so far, their investigation is ongoing.
The $7.2 million in cash found belonged to a well-known drug cartel, according to police. The suitcases were brought from Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Tocumen International Aiport in Panama by three Honduran men aged 41, 39, and 32.
After the men got off of the flight, police managed to catch them smuggling the money in once they discovered a second, hidden compartment in all of their luggage bags. The fake bottoms were removed and police found huge bundles of cash in $100 bills.
Authorities had been tipped off by intelligence that was gathered pointing to drug money coming through Tocumen Airport, chief drug prosecutor Javier Caraballo told local news.
Now the investigation has turned to Honduras, as police try to find out how such a large amount of money slipped by airport authorities, drug police and special investigators at Toncontin airport.
So far 32 people have been suspended or fired, with 25 of them being police officers, Reuben Martel, director of the National Bureau of Special Investigation, told Televicentro.hn. Five airport x-ray technicians were fired, and two officers from the Directorate for Combating Drug Trafficking were also let go.
Source: http://global.christianpost.com
The $7.2 million in cash found belonged to a well-known drug cartel, according to police. The suitcases were brought from Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Tocumen International Aiport in Panama by three Honduran men aged 41, 39, and 32.
After the men got off of the flight, police managed to catch them smuggling the money in once they discovered a second, hidden compartment in all of their luggage bags. The fake bottoms were removed and police found huge bundles of cash in $100 bills.
Authorities had been tipped off by intelligence that was gathered pointing to drug money coming through Tocumen Airport, chief drug prosecutor Javier Caraballo told local news.
Now the investigation has turned to Honduras, as police try to find out how such a large amount of money slipped by airport authorities, drug police and special investigators at Toncontin airport.
So far 32 people have been suspended or fired, with 25 of them being police officers, Reuben Martel, director of the National Bureau of Special Investigation, told Televicentro.hn. Five airport x-ray technicians were fired, and two officers from the Directorate for Combating Drug Trafficking were also let go.
Source: http://global.christianpost.com
Reuters
A policeman guards $7.2 million USD in bundles during a news conference in Panama.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Ecuador drug bust nets plane, drugs, 9 suspects
QUITO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's Anti-Narcotics Police on Thursday seized a plane, drugs, and arrested nine people suspected of drug trafficking, as part of a wide-reaching operation, Ecuadorian Interior Minister Jose Serrano said.
The aircraft was allegedly being used to fly drugs into Central America, a common distribution point for cocaine and other illicit substances destined for the U.S. and European markets, authorities believe.
Serrano said via Twitter that two of the detained were Mexican pilots charged with flying the small plane, which was found in Ayangue, in the Ecuadorian coastal province of Santa Elena.
The pilots were arrested at a different location, after intelligence led authorities to a house in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and capital of Guayas province, where the two were hiding out.
Ecuador's Gama TV reported that officials also found passports, cash and a GPS watch at the residence.
The operation also led to the seizure of 500 packets of cocaine in Puerto Inca, in Guayas province, which were set to be loaded onto the plane, said Serrano.
According to local press reports, the arrests were made at several locations, including Guayas, Santa Elena and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas.
The pilots told police that mechanical failures forced a hard landing in Ayangue. They abandoned the aircraft afterward.
Source: http://www.shanghaidaily.com
The aircraft was allegedly being used to fly drugs into Central America, a common distribution point for cocaine and other illicit substances destined for the U.S. and European markets, authorities believe.
Serrano said via Twitter that two of the detained were Mexican pilots charged with flying the small plane, which was found in Ayangue, in the Ecuadorian coastal province of Santa Elena.
The pilots were arrested at a different location, after intelligence led authorities to a house in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and capital of Guayas province, where the two were hiding out.
Ecuador's Gama TV reported that officials also found passports, cash and a GPS watch at the residence.
The operation also led to the seizure of 500 packets of cocaine in Puerto Inca, in Guayas province, which were set to be loaded onto the plane, said Serrano.
According to local press reports, the arrests were made at several locations, including Guayas, Santa Elena and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas.
The pilots told police that mechanical failures forced a hard landing in Ayangue. They abandoned the aircraft afterward.
Source: http://www.shanghaidaily.com
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Man charged with drunk driving murder after 2012 air show arrested again for DUI
A man accused of killing a
girl while driving drunk after Tuscaloosa's 2012 air show was charged
with a DUI in Northport Wednesday.
Danny Ray Smith, 66, was charged with driving under the influence and was being held at the Tuscaloosa County Jail Wednesday, according to jail records.
Northport City Administrator Scott Collins said that Smith was arrested around 12:30 p.m. while driving on McFarland Boulevard near 32nd Avenue. He was driving a 2012 Jeep Wrangler registered in Florida, where he has been given permission to travel for business while out on bond for charges of murder, manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, first-degree assault and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries.
Smith was charged with murder in April 2012, after police said he struck 8-year-old Haylee Burks while driving drunk after the Tuscaloosa Regional Air Show. Burks, from Chilton County, was walking on the shoulder of Fifth Street with her family after the Blue Angels performance.
According to investigators, Smith was driving a 2008 GMC Sierra pickup and struck Haylee, her 3-year-old sister and their 28-year-old mother. Her mother suffered multiple fractured vertebrae and her sister lost a tooth.
Smith had been hosting a private party at Dixie Air Services, a fixed-base operator he owns at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport, police said at the time. Court records indicate that his blood alcohol level was .13 percent. The ticket issued Wednesday did not note whether a test was conducted. Smith was also ticketed for failure or refusal to show the officer proof of insurance.
Smith also owns Danny Smith Realty and Construction.
In December, Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Brad Almond referred the criminal cases and a civil case filed by Haylee's mother to mediation and appointed retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Bernard Harwood as the mediator.
Court records indicate that Smith pleaded guilty to a DUI in Tuscaloosa in 1981.
Tuscaloosa County Deputy District Attorney Scott Holmes filed a motion to revoke his bond on the outstanding criminal charges on Wednesday afternoon. Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Chuck Malone signed the order, which was filed just before 5 p.m.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com
Danny Ray Smith, 66, was charged with driving under the influence and was being held at the Tuscaloosa County Jail Wednesday, according to jail records.
Northport City Administrator Scott Collins said that Smith was arrested around 12:30 p.m. while driving on McFarland Boulevard near 32nd Avenue. He was driving a 2012 Jeep Wrangler registered in Florida, where he has been given permission to travel for business while out on bond for charges of murder, manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, first-degree assault and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries.
Smith was charged with murder in April 2012, after police said he struck 8-year-old Haylee Burks while driving drunk after the Tuscaloosa Regional Air Show. Burks, from Chilton County, was walking on the shoulder of Fifth Street with her family after the Blue Angels performance.
According to investigators, Smith was driving a 2008 GMC Sierra pickup and struck Haylee, her 3-year-old sister and their 28-year-old mother. Her mother suffered multiple fractured vertebrae and her sister lost a tooth.
Smith had been hosting a private party at Dixie Air Services, a fixed-base operator he owns at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport, police said at the time. Court records indicate that his blood alcohol level was .13 percent. The ticket issued Wednesday did not note whether a test was conducted. Smith was also ticketed for failure or refusal to show the officer proof of insurance.
Smith also owns Danny Smith Realty and Construction.
In December, Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Brad Almond referred the criminal cases and a civil case filed by Haylee's mother to mediation and appointed retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Bernard Harwood as the mediator.
Court records indicate that Smith pleaded guilty to a DUI in Tuscaloosa in 1981.
Tuscaloosa County Deputy District Attorney Scott Holmes filed a motion to revoke his bond on the outstanding criminal charges on Wednesday afternoon. Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Chuck Malone signed the order, which was filed just before 5 p.m.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com
66-year-old Danny Ray
Smith was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Northport and charged with
driving under the influence. It's the third time he's been charged with
that in Tuscaloosa County, and the last time it happened, he killed an
8-year-old girl that he hit with a truck while driving drunk in April
2012.
(Tuscaloosa County Jail)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement sold drug smugglers doomed jet
A Tampa-based Immigrations and Customs Enforcement undercover operation sold a Gulfstream II turbojet — which crashed in Mexico seven years ago with nearly four tons of cocaine onboard — to suspected drug smugglers in Clearwater shortly before the mishap. That’s according to federal documents in an ongoing drug case involving some of the people in the 2007 aircraft sale.
That jet took off from the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport — where it was sold — on Sept. 16, 2007. Eight days later, it crashed in the Yucatan Peninsula with 3.7 tons of cocaine onboard.
The sale of that jet to the ICE undercover operation known as Mayan Jaguar was brokered by a former race car driver named Don Whittington, now the owner of a Fort Lauderdale charter jet company called World Jet Inc. In 1987, Whittington pleaded guilty to federal tax charges. He is currently being investigated for possibly using a Colorado hot springs resort, registered to the same address as World Jet, to launder the proceeds of aircraft used for drug smuggling — including the Gulfstream, according to a search warrant affidavit for Whittington’s emails.
The affidavit, now sealed, was obtained by the Durango Herald last fall. It was left unsealed accidently and sealed after the paper obtained it to protect sources and tactics, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver.
Carissa Cutrell, a spokeswoman for ICE in Tampa, confirmed the existence of Mayan Jaguar as a drug interdiction effort in the mid-2000s but had no details about the operation.
Whittington brokered the sale of the Gulfstream from SA Holdings LLC to a Coconut Creek-based company called Donna Blue Aircraft, which turned out to be an ICE front company, according to the search warrant affidavit. Donna Blue Aircraft then sold the jet to two pilots who “have long been targets of DEA investigations for the trafficking of cocaine from South America to Central America and Mexico,” according to the affidavit. One of those pilots, Gregory Dean Smith, “currently works as a contract pilot for Don Whittington and World Jet, Inc.,” according to the affidavit.
World Jet’s office was raided in November, according to the DEA, after a yearlong investigation “revealed that Don Whittington sold and leased multiple jet aircraft to purchasing agents of Venezuelan, Colombian, African and Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations,” the affidavit states.
The proceeds from those sales were invested in a Western Colorado spa, investigators say in the search warrant affidavit.
The sale of the Gulfstream, another jet at St. Pete-Clearwater and other planes from the area have long been the subject of scrutiny by international investigators and government officials.
Mexican authorities who issued an arrest warrant for a top financier of the Sinaloa drug cartel uncovered the connection between the cartel and the purchase of two jets, according to Mexican authorities.
The investigations reached the attention of high-level officials in the U.S. and Mexican governments concerned with the nexus between smuggling and terror groups, according to a State Department cable leaked by Wikileaks.
“In the area of money laundering, the USG (U.S. government) developed strong working relationships with the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and its companion unit in the Mexican Treasury (Hacienda) in combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and narcotics trafficking,” according to the cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela to the State Department. “In one case in late 2007, Mexican police worked with U.S. authorities to identify and arrest the alleged finance head for the Sinaloa drug cartel, targeting a ring that bought airplanes with laundered money to smuggle drugs.”
Another plane sold from St. Petersburg — a Cessna Conquest II — was part of an FBI investigation into international money laundering and drug smuggling, according to an FBI affidavit. The Cessna was sold as part of “a complex international money laundering scheme” to purchase airplanes for drug smuggling, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Michael Hoenigman. It was purchased from St. Petersburg-based Skyway Aircraft, FBI and FAA records state. It was to be used in transporting cocaine from Venezuela to Africa, according to the affidavit. That investigation was separate from any DEA investigations, the DEA has said.
Attorney Hunter Chamberlain, representing Larry Peters, who sold the Cessna, said Peters “doesn’t know anything” about the airplane being used by drug smugglers, Chamberlin said in a 2008 Tribune interview. “This is a guy who has a very small company. Whatever happens to these airplanes after Mr. Peters sells them, they enter the stream of commerce and that’s the last Larry Peters will see of the airplane.”
In an interview, Peters said he sold another plane that was seized by Guatemalan authorities after being used for smuggling.
Peters also has connections to the man whose company sold the plane that later crashed in Mexico. Through Atlantic Alcohol, a St. Petersburg-based company that tried to import ethanol from Brazil, Peters was a business partner of Joao Malago, who sold the Gulfstream II, according to Malago in a previous interview with the Tribune.
Both Malago and Peters have denied any connection to drug smugglers, and while Malago has been contacted by law enforcement, Peters was not.
In a 2007 Tribune interview, Malago, a Brazilian businessman who purchased the Gulfstream II in August 2007 for his Donna Blue Aircraft company, said he sold the 32-year-old twin-engine jet to a Fort Lauderdale-based pilot named Clyde O’Connor on Sept. 16. He emailed the Tribune an Aircraft Acceptance form he said contains O’Connor’s signature and that of a second man, Gregory Smith.
Malago, who bought the plane with partner Eduardo Dias Guimaraes, said he chose St. Pete-Clearwater “because I have a close friend who has a hangar, so the plane was just waiting for delivery.”
In telephone and email interviews from Brazil, Malago in 2007 said he sold the jet to O’Connor for $2 million. O’Connor and Smith, along with a pilot hired by Malago, flew the plane to Fort Lauderdale. Malago said O’Connor was going to use the plane to fly charters in Mexico.
O’Connor, Smith and Whittington did not return phone calls. Malago could not be reached for comment for this story.
Mayan Jaguar was likely a “win” for the government, said Robert Mazur, who spent five years undercover infiltrating the criminal hierarchy of Colombia’s drug cartels. His book, “The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside The Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel,” and the movie it inspired chronicle how drug money is laundered.
“If the name of game is to be able to take $2 million in cash out of the bad guys, give them a plane and let them use it so whatever they try to bring back into the country is seized, that is good,” said Mazur, president of Chase & Associates Inc., a Tampa-based forensic investigative services company, speaking in general terms because he has no direct knowledge of Mayan Jaguar. “Anytime you do anything to facilitate crime, whether selling planes, or laundering money for them, it really needs to be a strategically thought-out plan so that your collection of evidence far outweighs the facilitation of criminal activity.”
Source: http://tbo.com
That jet took off from the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport — where it was sold — on Sept. 16, 2007. Eight days later, it crashed in the Yucatan Peninsula with 3.7 tons of cocaine onboard.
The sale of that jet to the ICE undercover operation known as Mayan Jaguar was brokered by a former race car driver named Don Whittington, now the owner of a Fort Lauderdale charter jet company called World Jet Inc. In 1987, Whittington pleaded guilty to federal tax charges. He is currently being investigated for possibly using a Colorado hot springs resort, registered to the same address as World Jet, to launder the proceeds of aircraft used for drug smuggling — including the Gulfstream, according to a search warrant affidavit for Whittington’s emails.
The affidavit, now sealed, was obtained by the Durango Herald last fall. It was left unsealed accidently and sealed after the paper obtained it to protect sources and tactics, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver.
Carissa Cutrell, a spokeswoman for ICE in Tampa, confirmed the existence of Mayan Jaguar as a drug interdiction effort in the mid-2000s but had no details about the operation.
Whittington brokered the sale of the Gulfstream from SA Holdings LLC to a Coconut Creek-based company called Donna Blue Aircraft, which turned out to be an ICE front company, according to the search warrant affidavit. Donna Blue Aircraft then sold the jet to two pilots who “have long been targets of DEA investigations for the trafficking of cocaine from South America to Central America and Mexico,” according to the affidavit. One of those pilots, Gregory Dean Smith, “currently works as a contract pilot for Don Whittington and World Jet, Inc.,” according to the affidavit.
World Jet’s office was raided in November, according to the DEA, after a yearlong investigation “revealed that Don Whittington sold and leased multiple jet aircraft to purchasing agents of Venezuelan, Colombian, African and Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations,” the affidavit states.
The proceeds from those sales were invested in a Western Colorado spa, investigators say in the search warrant affidavit.
The sale of the Gulfstream, another jet at St. Pete-Clearwater and other planes from the area have long been the subject of scrutiny by international investigators and government officials.
Mexican authorities who issued an arrest warrant for a top financier of the Sinaloa drug cartel uncovered the connection between the cartel and the purchase of two jets, according to Mexican authorities.
The investigations reached the attention of high-level officials in the U.S. and Mexican governments concerned with the nexus between smuggling and terror groups, according to a State Department cable leaked by Wikileaks.
“In the area of money laundering, the USG (U.S. government) developed strong working relationships with the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and its companion unit in the Mexican Treasury (Hacienda) in combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and narcotics trafficking,” according to the cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela to the State Department. “In one case in late 2007, Mexican police worked with U.S. authorities to identify and arrest the alleged finance head for the Sinaloa drug cartel, targeting a ring that bought airplanes with laundered money to smuggle drugs.”
Another plane sold from St. Petersburg — a Cessna Conquest II — was part of an FBI investigation into international money laundering and drug smuggling, according to an FBI affidavit. The Cessna was sold as part of “a complex international money laundering scheme” to purchase airplanes for drug smuggling, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Michael Hoenigman. It was purchased from St. Petersburg-based Skyway Aircraft, FBI and FAA records state. It was to be used in transporting cocaine from Venezuela to Africa, according to the affidavit. That investigation was separate from any DEA investigations, the DEA has said.
Attorney Hunter Chamberlain, representing Larry Peters, who sold the Cessna, said Peters “doesn’t know anything” about the airplane being used by drug smugglers, Chamberlin said in a 2008 Tribune interview. “This is a guy who has a very small company. Whatever happens to these airplanes after Mr. Peters sells them, they enter the stream of commerce and that’s the last Larry Peters will see of the airplane.”
In an interview, Peters said he sold another plane that was seized by Guatemalan authorities after being used for smuggling.
Peters also has connections to the man whose company sold the plane that later crashed in Mexico. Through Atlantic Alcohol, a St. Petersburg-based company that tried to import ethanol from Brazil, Peters was a business partner of Joao Malago, who sold the Gulfstream II, according to Malago in a previous interview with the Tribune.
Both Malago and Peters have denied any connection to drug smugglers, and while Malago has been contacted by law enforcement, Peters was not.
In a 2007 Tribune interview, Malago, a Brazilian businessman who purchased the Gulfstream II in August 2007 for his Donna Blue Aircraft company, said he sold the 32-year-old twin-engine jet to a Fort Lauderdale-based pilot named Clyde O’Connor on Sept. 16. He emailed the Tribune an Aircraft Acceptance form he said contains O’Connor’s signature and that of a second man, Gregory Smith.
Malago, who bought the plane with partner Eduardo Dias Guimaraes, said he chose St. Pete-Clearwater “because I have a close friend who has a hangar, so the plane was just waiting for delivery.”
In telephone and email interviews from Brazil, Malago in 2007 said he sold the jet to O’Connor for $2 million. O’Connor and Smith, along with a pilot hired by Malago, flew the plane to Fort Lauderdale. Malago said O’Connor was going to use the plane to fly charters in Mexico.
O’Connor, Smith and Whittington did not return phone calls. Malago could not be reached for comment for this story.
Mayan Jaguar was likely a “win” for the government, said Robert Mazur, who spent five years undercover infiltrating the criminal hierarchy of Colombia’s drug cartels. His book, “The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside The Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel,” and the movie it inspired chronicle how drug money is laundered.
“If the name of game is to be able to take $2 million in cash out of the bad guys, give them a plane and let them use it so whatever they try to bring back into the country is seized, that is good,” said Mazur, president of Chase & Associates Inc., a Tampa-based forensic investigative services company, speaking in general terms because he has no direct knowledge of Mayan Jaguar. “Anytime you do anything to facilitate crime, whether selling planes, or laundering money for them, it really needs to be a strategically thought-out plan so that your collection of evidence far outweighs the facilitation of criminal activity.”
Source: http://tbo.com
Monday, January 13, 2014
Ex-Pratt Worker Allegedly Tried To Ship F-35 Files To Iran: Company Says It Is Cooperating With Authorities
Pratt & Whitney said
Monday it is cooperating with authorities after federal agents arrested a
former employee for trying to ship documents to Iran related to the
U.S. military's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
The East Hartford defense contractor, the sole manufacturer of the aircraft's engine, declined to comment on how Mozaffar Khazaee, 59, slipped thousands of pages of documents, diagrams, blueprints and technical manuals out the door before he was laid off in August along with hundreds of other employees.
Federal authorities arrested Khazaee at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Thursday before he could board a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany, to meet a connecting flight to Tehran, Iran, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut.
Pratt and the Pentagon are highly sensitive about compliance and security issues after the company paid $75 million to settle charges that it violated arms control laws and made false statements about exporting software to China for military helicopters.
Company spokesman Ray Hernandez said in an emailed statement that the company "has been fully cooperating with the government on this matter and will continue to do so."
The evidence against Khazaee — filed in an affidavit that was unsealed by a federal judge in Bridgeport after the arrest was made — shows how authorities learned of his plan to ship dozens of boxes, labeled as household goods, to western Iran on a large container ship. Documents filed by federal agents do not address a motive.
In October, Khazaee hired a company to ship the boxes from his apartment on Oakland Street in Manchester to the port in Long Beach, Calif., where they were to be loaded onto the NYK Libra, according to court documents.
In late November, customs agents at the port inspected the shipment and found the documents, and days later identified them as belonging to three separate companies. Documents obtained by federal authorities indicated that the ultimate recipient of the shipment would be Khazaee's brother-in-law, Mohammad Payendah in Hamadan, Iran, the affidavit said.
Khazaee became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1991, according to the affidavit. He holds U.S. and Iranian passports and has traveled to Iran five times in the past seven years.
The shipment mainly contained documents related to military aircraft engines, including the F-35 Lightning II built by Lockheed Martin and what federal agents referred to as the J136 engine, which could refer to the F136 engine designed, though ultimately not built, by General Electric and Rolls-Royce for the F-35.
The shipment also included cookware, dishes, an English-Persian dictionary, medicine bottles, college documents, printed emails, an expired Iranian passport and credit card bills addressed to Khazaee's Manchester residence, according to the affidavit.
The bills and medicine bottles identified Khazaee, but so did his fingerprints found on the packaging tape on three of the boxes, according to authorities.
Khazaee worked on a team at Pratt, a division of United Technologies Corp., which conducted strength and durability evaluations for components in all of the company's engines, the F119 engine for the military's F-22 Raptor engine, the affidavit said. He was laid off in August, when Pratt cut about 400 positions throughout the company.
Months later Khazaee left his Manchester apartment and moved to Indianapolis.
Khazaee lived in Indianapolis in 2005, when he filed for bankruptcy after amassing tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. According to court documents, he had $69 in cash and owed $53,681.46 when he filed for bankruptcy.
At the time, he was a contractor for Volt Services, a large, technical staffing and job placement company. He listed his place of employment as Rolls-Royce Avenue in Indianapolis.
Source: http://www.courant.com
The East Hartford defense contractor, the sole manufacturer of the aircraft's engine, declined to comment on how Mozaffar Khazaee, 59, slipped thousands of pages of documents, diagrams, blueprints and technical manuals out the door before he was laid off in August along with hundreds of other employees.
Federal authorities arrested Khazaee at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Thursday before he could board a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany, to meet a connecting flight to Tehran, Iran, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut.
Pratt and the Pentagon are highly sensitive about compliance and security issues after the company paid $75 million to settle charges that it violated arms control laws and made false statements about exporting software to China for military helicopters.
Company spokesman Ray Hernandez said in an emailed statement that the company "has been fully cooperating with the government on this matter and will continue to do so."
The evidence against Khazaee — filed in an affidavit that was unsealed by a federal judge in Bridgeport after the arrest was made — shows how authorities learned of his plan to ship dozens of boxes, labeled as household goods, to western Iran on a large container ship. Documents filed by federal agents do not address a motive.
In October, Khazaee hired a company to ship the boxes from his apartment on Oakland Street in Manchester to the port in Long Beach, Calif., where they were to be loaded onto the NYK Libra, according to court documents.
In late November, customs agents at the port inspected the shipment and found the documents, and days later identified them as belonging to three separate companies. Documents obtained by federal authorities indicated that the ultimate recipient of the shipment would be Khazaee's brother-in-law, Mohammad Payendah in Hamadan, Iran, the affidavit said.
Khazaee became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1991, according to the affidavit. He holds U.S. and Iranian passports and has traveled to Iran five times in the past seven years.
The shipment mainly contained documents related to military aircraft engines, including the F-35 Lightning II built by Lockheed Martin and what federal agents referred to as the J136 engine, which could refer to the F136 engine designed, though ultimately not built, by General Electric and Rolls-Royce for the F-35.
The shipment also included cookware, dishes, an English-Persian dictionary, medicine bottles, college documents, printed emails, an expired Iranian passport and credit card bills addressed to Khazaee's Manchester residence, according to the affidavit.
The bills and medicine bottles identified Khazaee, but so did his fingerprints found on the packaging tape on three of the boxes, according to authorities.
Khazaee worked on a team at Pratt, a division of United Technologies Corp., which conducted strength and durability evaluations for components in all of the company's engines, the F119 engine for the military's F-22 Raptor engine, the affidavit said. He was laid off in August, when Pratt cut about 400 positions throughout the company.
Months later Khazaee left his Manchester apartment and moved to Indianapolis.
Khazaee lived in Indianapolis in 2005, when he filed for bankruptcy after amassing tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. According to court documents, he had $69 in cash and owed $53,681.46 when he filed for bankruptcy.
At the time, he was a contractor for Volt Services, a large, technical staffing and job placement company. He listed his place of employment as Rolls-Royce Avenue in Indianapolis.
Source: http://www.courant.com
Federal authorities arrested Mozaffar Khazaee at Newark Liberty
International Airport in New Jersey on Thursday before he could board a
plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany, to meet a connecting flight to
Tehran, Iran, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut.
(Reuters)
(January 13, 2014)
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Ohio man admits scamming New Jersey-based air charter firm
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey say an Ohio man has admitted posing as a high-level executive with a financial firm to improperly obtain charter jet flights and limo rides.
Christopher Henderson pleaded guilty Thursday to a complaint charging him with wire fraud. The 32-year-old Akron resident faces up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced April 15.
Prosecutors say Henderson and others conspired last year to fraudulently obtain at least three flights between May and June through Jet Aviation, a major business aviation provider based at Teterboro Airport. They paid for the flights by tapping into a sham $350,000 line of credit issued by the company.
The scheme unraveled in June, when a Jet Aviation employee contacted the unnamed company where the conspirators supposedly worked and learned that neither man was employed by the firm. Officials said Jet Aviation was never paid for nearly $176,000 in charter flights and limousine services it provided.
Federal prosecutors said the conspirators also used their fake corporate credentials at a Tiffany store in Florida and at a Miami hotel. They allegedly charged about $20,000 in watches, sunglasses, sterling silver and leather business card holders, and men's cologne from Tiffany, and about $25,500 in overnight hotel stays.
Source: http://www.the-dispatch.com
Christopher Henderson pleaded guilty Thursday to a complaint charging him with wire fraud. The 32-year-old Akron resident faces up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced April 15.
Prosecutors say Henderson and others conspired last year to fraudulently obtain at least three flights between May and June through Jet Aviation, a major business aviation provider based at Teterboro Airport. They paid for the flights by tapping into a sham $350,000 line of credit issued by the company.
The scheme unraveled in June, when a Jet Aviation employee contacted the unnamed company where the conspirators supposedly worked and learned that neither man was employed by the firm. Officials said Jet Aviation was never paid for nearly $176,000 in charter flights and limousine services it provided.
Federal prosecutors said the conspirators also used their fake corporate credentials at a Tiffany store in Florida and at a Miami hotel. They allegedly charged about $20,000 in watches, sunglasses, sterling silver and leather business card holders, and men's cologne from Tiffany, and about $25,500 in overnight hotel stays.
Source: http://www.the-dispatch.com
Opinion: The airport debacle continues - Grand Junction Regional (KGJT), Colorado
Jim Hoffman
CONSIDER THIS
Free Press Weekly Opinion Columnist
Is that the sound of another shoe falling at the airport?
The County Commission requested and received the resignation of long-serving Airport Authority board member Denny Granum. While carefully pointing out their request was not indicative of any wrong doing, the commission’s request did present an awkward appearance in its timing.
Mr. Granum served on the board for the majority of the time Rex Tippetts was on board as airport manager. As revelations continue to show, Tippetts was largely unfettered by meaningful oversight by the board and the board by extension (from both County Commission and City Council). Even in the absence of wrong doing, Granum and previous board members must assume a level of responsibility for lack of management oversight that has become the reality of scandal today.
While some cower in fear as to what the County Commission’s overall motivation and intention may be at the airport, one should at least find some degree of comfort in the fact that they are finally acknowledging their obligation and responsibility to oversee the overseers they appoint to the Airport Authority. No, no and NO — that is not a demand for micro-management, but a timid request for some management.
While Grand Junction Mayor Sam Susuras sits on the board, we have not yet seen any indication the city has assumed any greater interest in the Airport Authority or the city’s role in managing such.
Past Commissioners and City Council members turned a blind eye and deaf ear toward the many rumblings of discontent, discord and mismanagement at the airport and allowed Tippetts to continue an autocratic, unsupervised management. It cannot be said the current situation is surprising (except for its scope) as there have long been indications of a problem that the city and county simply refused to investigate.
Tippetts somehow reminds one of a less than aboveboard politician who is tolerated and returned to office because they “bring home the bacon.” Truth be told, all those elected officials who preach reduced taxes and spending love government handouts. Tippetts literally brought millions in federal grants (read our tax dollars, NOT free money) to the airport for his expansion plans including a huge new administrative building to house his offices. Now it appears he may have been a master of deceit inasmuch as he ”re-purposed” square footage within the building for non-existent purposes to qualify the building for federal grant money. The scope of his creative manipulation and how many millions of dollars may have been applied for, received, and expended without a legitimate basis has not yet been revealed.
Those millions may become a liability for which repayment is demanded. Beyond that there remains those pesky allegations contained in that federal lawsuit. Those allegations of board members purchasing airport “surplus” equipment at below market rates, steering airport business to family and friends, and favoring some contractors still need to be resolved. Finally, the airport may not be able to sell bonds to finance future construction and may be refused future grant dollars. The economic damage has yet to be calculated and other reputations are sure to be soiled.
What a way to start the New Year! Just when you thought it was not possible to be more disappointed with a politician than you already were, Steve King pulls a stunt to change your mind.
Right there on the front page of the Daily Sentinel on January 1, 2014, New Year’s Day, is a report on an interview for which King sat. In that interview he reveals to the general public that he and his wife of 20-plus years are divorcing. The sole reason he cites for this event is his service to Mesa County as an elected representative.
While the list of representatives who have served us in Denver without the disintegration of their marriage is long, the list who divorced is rather short. In recent memory that would be Josh Penry and now Steve King. Why King chose this forum and this day to confirm the months-long rumors as to problems within his marriage we fail to comprehend.
Source: http://www.postindependent.com
CONSIDER THIS
Free Press Weekly Opinion Columnist
Is that the sound of another shoe falling at the airport?
The County Commission requested and received the resignation of long-serving Airport Authority board member Denny Granum. While carefully pointing out their request was not indicative of any wrong doing, the commission’s request did present an awkward appearance in its timing.
Mr. Granum served on the board for the majority of the time Rex Tippetts was on board as airport manager. As revelations continue to show, Tippetts was largely unfettered by meaningful oversight by the board and the board by extension (from both County Commission and City Council). Even in the absence of wrong doing, Granum and previous board members must assume a level of responsibility for lack of management oversight that has become the reality of scandal today.
While some cower in fear as to what the County Commission’s overall motivation and intention may be at the airport, one should at least find some degree of comfort in the fact that they are finally acknowledging their obligation and responsibility to oversee the overseers they appoint to the Airport Authority. No, no and NO — that is not a demand for micro-management, but a timid request for some management.
While Grand Junction Mayor Sam Susuras sits on the board, we have not yet seen any indication the city has assumed any greater interest in the Airport Authority or the city’s role in managing such.
Past Commissioners and City Council members turned a blind eye and deaf ear toward the many rumblings of discontent, discord and mismanagement at the airport and allowed Tippetts to continue an autocratic, unsupervised management. It cannot be said the current situation is surprising (except for its scope) as there have long been indications of a problem that the city and county simply refused to investigate.
Tippetts somehow reminds one of a less than aboveboard politician who is tolerated and returned to office because they “bring home the bacon.” Truth be told, all those elected officials who preach reduced taxes and spending love government handouts. Tippetts literally brought millions in federal grants (read our tax dollars, NOT free money) to the airport for his expansion plans including a huge new administrative building to house his offices. Now it appears he may have been a master of deceit inasmuch as he ”re-purposed” square footage within the building for non-existent purposes to qualify the building for federal grant money. The scope of his creative manipulation and how many millions of dollars may have been applied for, received, and expended without a legitimate basis has not yet been revealed.
Those millions may become a liability for which repayment is demanded. Beyond that there remains those pesky allegations contained in that federal lawsuit. Those allegations of board members purchasing airport “surplus” equipment at below market rates, steering airport business to family and friends, and favoring some contractors still need to be resolved. Finally, the airport may not be able to sell bonds to finance future construction and may be refused future grant dollars. The economic damage has yet to be calculated and other reputations are sure to be soiled.
What a way to start the New Year! Just when you thought it was not possible to be more disappointed with a politician than you already were, Steve King pulls a stunt to change your mind.
Right there on the front page of the Daily Sentinel on January 1, 2014, New Year’s Day, is a report on an interview for which King sat. In that interview he reveals to the general public that he and his wife of 20-plus years are divorcing. The sole reason he cites for this event is his service to Mesa County as an elected representative.
While the list of representatives who have served us in Denver without the disintegration of their marriage is long, the list who divorced is rather short. In recent memory that would be Josh Penry and now Steve King. Why King chose this forum and this day to confirm the months-long rumors as to problems within his marriage we fail to comprehend.
Source: http://www.postindependent.com
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Dulles International Airport (KIAD), Washington, DC: Man has marijuana cookie, seeds seized
WASHINGTON - On Wednesday at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along with the Office of Field Operations seized hashish, marijuana seeds and a marijuana cookie from a Las Vegas man flying back from Amsterdam.
Victorius Rugebregt, 55, arrived to IAD and was referred for a secondary inspection due to a CBP Narcotics Detector Canine alert. When CBP officers searched Rugebregt and discovered 9 grams of hashish in his pants pocket. Officers also found one marijuana cookie weighing 23 grams and 18 grams of marijuana seeds.
CBP issued a $1,000 Zero Tolerance Penalty for being found with illegal narcotics then turned Rugebregt over to the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority police department. He faces a misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge.
Source: http://www.myfoxdc.com
Victorius Rugebregt, 55, arrived to IAD and was referred for a secondary inspection due to a CBP Narcotics Detector Canine alert. When CBP officers searched Rugebregt and discovered 9 grams of hashish in his pants pocket. Officers also found one marijuana cookie weighing 23 grams and 18 grams of marijuana seeds.
CBP issued a $1,000 Zero Tolerance Penalty for being found with illegal narcotics then turned Rugebregt over to the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority police department. He faces a misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge.
Source: http://www.myfoxdc.com
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Tennessee Highway Patrol Aviation Unit Finds Stolen Construction Equipment
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – High-tech tracking equipment led law enforcement agencies to some pricey stolen construction equipment.
Officials said the Tennessee Highway Patrol Aviation Unit and the Criminal Investigation Division were able to track down two stolen mini excavators on December 26.
One was found stolen from a job site in Rutherford County. The other was taken in Williamson County. Both machines were valued at about $100,000.
The first theft happened two days before Thanksgiving. Officials with the Murfreesboro Police Department said the owner of a 2007 Kubotoa Mini Excavator reported it missing.
The excavator had a theft recovery transponder. It was activated when police entered the machinery information into state and federal crime computers.
While helping with a search and rescue operation in Putnam County, THP's Aviation Unit came across a signal from the stolen excavator. The Criminal Investigation Division was able to later return to the location and found the machine at a homeowner's construction site.
During their investigation, officials found information that led to the second excavator. They said a 2010 Caterpillar Mini Excavator was stolen on December 5. It was recovered at a separate location.
Officials said the theft recovery system from LoJack was the only system operated by law enforcement. Two of the THP helicopters have the tracking equipment installed, and this was the first time equipment has been recovered by the unit.
Details about possible arrests were not available.
Source: http://www.newschannel5.com
Officials said the Tennessee Highway Patrol Aviation Unit and the Criminal Investigation Division were able to track down two stolen mini excavators on December 26.
One was found stolen from a job site in Rutherford County. The other was taken in Williamson County. Both machines were valued at about $100,000.
The first theft happened two days before Thanksgiving. Officials with the Murfreesboro Police Department said the owner of a 2007 Kubotoa Mini Excavator reported it missing.
The excavator had a theft recovery transponder. It was activated when police entered the machinery information into state and federal crime computers.
While helping with a search and rescue operation in Putnam County, THP's Aviation Unit came across a signal from the stolen excavator. The Criminal Investigation Division was able to later return to the location and found the machine at a homeowner's construction site.
During their investigation, officials found information that led to the second excavator. They said a 2010 Caterpillar Mini Excavator was stolen on December 5. It was recovered at a separate location.
Officials said the theft recovery system from LoJack was the only system operated by law enforcement. Two of the THP helicopters have the tracking equipment installed, and this was the first time equipment has been recovered by the unit.
Details about possible arrests were not available.
Source: http://www.newschannel5.com
Sham Gurgaon firm 'trains' pilot, clips wings
GURGAON: Harish Abdul could see his dream of becoming a commercial pilot take off when he sat in the cockpit of a training aircraft in the Philippines. He hadn't foreseen a crash-landing only two days later.
Abdul, a 24-year-old Madurai resident, was sent back to India within 48 hours of his first flight. The training that cost him Rs 49 lakh and was being provided by a Gurgaon-based aviation company, was cut short abruptly and Abdul was asked to contact the company office in Gurgaon. But no one answered his call. The office, even the company, simply didn't exist.
The elaborate hoax pulled off by a group of frauds came to light on Wednesday when a complaint was filed at Sector 29 police station after J M Haroon, a Congress MP in Tamil Nadu, intervened on Abdul's behalf. In the complaint, Abdul said he had come to know about Ace Pilots Aviation, a Gurgaon-based company, through an online agent. The company promised flight training in the Philippines as part of its course, and a certificate. Eager to give his career a boost, an unsuspecting Abdul paid Rs 49,12,000 as course fee and donations.
Police believe the fraud had a conduit in the Philippines who arranged the training there. When Abdul made inquiries after returning to India, he was told no company by the name of Ace Pilots Aviation was authorized to provide pilot training. A case of fraud has been filed against two company officials named by Abdul - Lalitha Krishnamurthy and Anand Patel - after a preliminary investigation by the cyber cell.
A Gurgaon Police team will travel to Madurai. Abdul wasn't available for comment.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Abdul, a 24-year-old Madurai resident, was sent back to India within 48 hours of his first flight. The training that cost him Rs 49 lakh and was being provided by a Gurgaon-based aviation company, was cut short abruptly and Abdul was asked to contact the company office in Gurgaon. But no one answered his call. The office, even the company, simply didn't exist.
The elaborate hoax pulled off by a group of frauds came to light on Wednesday when a complaint was filed at Sector 29 police station after J M Haroon, a Congress MP in Tamil Nadu, intervened on Abdul's behalf. In the complaint, Abdul said he had come to know about Ace Pilots Aviation, a Gurgaon-based company, through an online agent. The company promised flight training in the Philippines as part of its course, and a certificate. Eager to give his career a boost, an unsuspecting Abdul paid Rs 49,12,000 as course fee and donations.
Police believe the fraud had a conduit in the Philippines who arranged the training there. When Abdul made inquiries after returning to India, he was told no company by the name of Ace Pilots Aviation was authorized to provide pilot training. A case of fraud has been filed against two company officials named by Abdul - Lalitha Krishnamurthy and Anand Patel - after a preliminary investigation by the cyber cell.
A Gurgaon Police team will travel to Madurai. Abdul wasn't available for comment.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Grass menagerie: Thieves stole a Maryland airplane club’s prized lawn tractor
John Kelly
Columnist
Gary Heath didn’t believe it at first, doing the sort of double take you do when your brain refuses to comprehend what your eyes are telling you.
On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 29, Gary peered into the big metal trailer where the Free State Aeromodelers club stores some of its equipment, only to find that the club’s prized John Deere Model Type D140 lawn tractor (serial number 1GXD140ETCC323493, with 48-inch cutting deck) was gone.
“It’s just so crushing,” Gary said.
The locks that secured the trailer’s doors had been bashed off, and a cable that looped around the tractor’s axle to keep it attached to the trailer’s floor had been snipped. The theft took some planning.
“They had to know it was there,” said Tom Salamon, treasurer-secretary of the club. “They had to bring tools with them: crowbars, saws, whatever the hell they used. They planned it.”
The club has one of the nicest facilities for flying radio-controlled planes and helicopters on the East Coast. It’s in Laurel, not far from the Gardens Ice House, on a road that includes a mulch operation and an asphalt plant, not the sort of neighbors who mind stuff buzzing around.
There are nearly 100 acres that the miniature aviators can fly over and a smooth, grass runway that’s 100 feet wide and 500 feet long. In warmer months, a lawn service comes once a week to mow it, but to keep it in tip-top condition club members manicure the field more often. They’d been using push mowers, but in 2012 they splurged on the $2,000 John Deere, a stretch for the 120-member club.
“Landing in tall grass is kind of like trying to land on Velcro,” said Tom, whose day job is designing swimming pools. “As soon as the wheels touch down, it’s like putting on the brakes. One tends to get a lot of nose-overs, and it makes it hard to taxi. You can’t get a good takeoff roll. So we like to keep the grass groomed on the runway.”
Tom said the tractor was uninsured because no firm would write a policy for equipment stored on leased property. The club is hoping that if I write about the stolen tractor, someone might recognize it and the group will get it back.
I explained that only good people read my column, not thieves.
“It only takes one good person to drop a dime on them,” said Bill Kahl, who writes software code for the Defense Department.
The club traditionally welcomes the new year by flying. On Wednesday morning, about two dozen members had brought various craft, from detailed scale reproductions of a Stearman biplane and a Super Sabre jet to a loud helicopter.
“It’s a bunch of old guys with toys,” said Gary, an electrician.
A bunch of old guys who don’t mind getting up at 7 a.m. on Jan. 1 to stand in the bone-chilling cold.
“We’re all divorced,” joked John McDermott of Silver Spring.
He was fiddling with a handmade plane he’d dubbed the Purple Haze, after the Jimi Hendrix song. The landing gear had come off after a previous rough touchdown, but John was confident he could get it back on.
“It’s been smacked up many, many times,” he said. “It will rise again, like a phoenix.”
For some, the appeal of the hobby is in building the planes. Others prefer buying finished planes off the shelf and flying them. Whichever category you’re in, you’re only as good as your last landing.
“Once you come in that gate, you’re not a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist,” said John, who is a construction supervisor. “You’re an airplane.”
Jerry Richards, a retired FBI agent from Laurel, stood admiring the aerobatics. He oversaw construction of the field in 2000 after encroaching development had forced the Free State Aeromodelers to abandon earlier locations.
“You could actually land a small plane here,” he said.
He meant a plane bigger than the small planes that were turning somersaults in the air.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com
Columnist
Gary Heath didn’t believe it at first, doing the sort of double take you do when your brain refuses to comprehend what your eyes are telling you.
On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 29, Gary peered into the big metal trailer where the Free State Aeromodelers club stores some of its equipment, only to find that the club’s prized John Deere Model Type D140 lawn tractor (serial number 1GXD140ETCC323493, with 48-inch cutting deck) was gone.
“It’s just so crushing,” Gary said.
The locks that secured the trailer’s doors had been bashed off, and a cable that looped around the tractor’s axle to keep it attached to the trailer’s floor had been snipped. The theft took some planning.
“They had to know it was there,” said Tom Salamon, treasurer-secretary of the club. “They had to bring tools with them: crowbars, saws, whatever the hell they used. They planned it.”
The club has one of the nicest facilities for flying radio-controlled planes and helicopters on the East Coast. It’s in Laurel, not far from the Gardens Ice House, on a road that includes a mulch operation and an asphalt plant, not the sort of neighbors who mind stuff buzzing around.
There are nearly 100 acres that the miniature aviators can fly over and a smooth, grass runway that’s 100 feet wide and 500 feet long. In warmer months, a lawn service comes once a week to mow it, but to keep it in tip-top condition club members manicure the field more often. They’d been using push mowers, but in 2012 they splurged on the $2,000 John Deere, a stretch for the 120-member club.
“Landing in tall grass is kind of like trying to land on Velcro,” said Tom, whose day job is designing swimming pools. “As soon as the wheels touch down, it’s like putting on the brakes. One tends to get a lot of nose-overs, and it makes it hard to taxi. You can’t get a good takeoff roll. So we like to keep the grass groomed on the runway.”
Tom said the tractor was uninsured because no firm would write a policy for equipment stored on leased property. The club is hoping that if I write about the stolen tractor, someone might recognize it and the group will get it back.
I explained that only good people read my column, not thieves.
“It only takes one good person to drop a dime on them,” said Bill Kahl, who writes software code for the Defense Department.
The club traditionally welcomes the new year by flying. On Wednesday morning, about two dozen members had brought various craft, from detailed scale reproductions of a Stearman biplane and a Super Sabre jet to a loud helicopter.
“It’s a bunch of old guys with toys,” said Gary, an electrician.
A bunch of old guys who don’t mind getting up at 7 a.m. on Jan. 1 to stand in the bone-chilling cold.
“We’re all divorced,” joked John McDermott of Silver Spring.
He was fiddling with a handmade plane he’d dubbed the Purple Haze, after the Jimi Hendrix song. The landing gear had come off after a previous rough touchdown, but John was confident he could get it back on.
“It’s been smacked up many, many times,” he said. “It will rise again, like a phoenix.”
For some, the appeal of the hobby is in building the planes. Others prefer buying finished planes off the shelf and flying them. Whichever category you’re in, you’re only as good as your last landing.
“Once you come in that gate, you’re not a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist,” said John, who is a construction supervisor. “You’re an airplane.”
Jerry Richards, a retired FBI agent from Laurel, stood admiring the aerobatics. He oversaw construction of the field in 2000 after encroaching development had forced the Free State Aeromodelers to abandon earlier locations.
“You could actually land a small plane here,” he said.
He meant a plane bigger than the small planes that were turning somersaults in the air.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com
Tom Salamon fiddles with his remote-controlled plane at the Free State Aeromodelers club field in Laurel on January 1.
John Kelly/The Washington Post
Man arrested for shining laser light at helicopter
A Holly Hill man was arrested early New Year’s Day accused of shining
a green laser light into the cockpit of a Volusia County sheriff’s
helicopter as the craft flew on patrol over his neighborhood,
investigating deputies said.
Andrew Decker, 18, a Daytona State College student, was charged with pointing a laser light at a pilot/driver.
Deputies said Air One was on patrol over the city of Holly Hill when the green laser light was shined at it at least four times around 12:18 a.m. On one occasion, the light was shone into the cockpit as the pilot wore night vision goggles trying to locate Decker, an arrest report shows.
The pilot guided deputies to 1569 Hammock Drive in Holly Hill where they found Decker outside with the laser in his hand. Even as deputies were walking toward Decker, he again pointed the laser at the helicopter, reports said.
Decker said he just wanted to find out if the laser could reach as high as the helicopter was flying, even after a neighbor told him it was a crime to do so, reports said.
Source: http://www.news-journalonline.com
Andrew Decker, 18, a Daytona State College student, was charged with pointing a laser light at a pilot/driver.
Deputies said Air One was on patrol over the city of Holly Hill when the green laser light was shined at it at least four times around 12:18 a.m. On one occasion, the light was shone into the cockpit as the pilot wore night vision goggles trying to locate Decker, an arrest report shows.
The pilot guided deputies to 1569 Hammock Drive in Holly Hill where they found Decker outside with the laser in his hand. Even as deputies were walking toward Decker, he again pointed the laser at the helicopter, reports said.
Decker said he just wanted to find out if the laser could reach as high as the helicopter was flying, even after a neighbor told him it was a crime to do so, reports said.
Source: http://www.news-journalonline.com
Andrew Decker
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Passenger alleges mustache ‘harassment’ at Sharjah airport: Passport confiscated as official disliked mustache and asked man to shave it off
Photo Courtesy Sujeev
After stamping my passport, he kept looking at me and the picture in the passport. He asked me how I keep my mustache brushed and laughed, says Sujeev Kumar.
Sharjah: Officials at the Sharjah Department of Naturalisation and Foreign Affairs are investigating a case in which a passport control official allegedly retained a passenger’s passport because he did not like the latter’s mustache.
Brigadier Dr Abdullah Bin Sahoo, Director-General of the department, said they will study CCTV images to check whether the passenger’s allegations are correct and will then take action.
Sujeev Kumar, a software engineer, who flew from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in India arrived in Sharjah on Friday. Kumar said that the passport control officer told him he would return the passport if he shaved off his mustache.
He claimed that the officer stamped his passport, but did not return it. “After stamping my passport, he kept looking at me and the picture in the passport. He asked me how I keep my mustache brushed and laughed,” said Kumar.
Serious joke
Assuming it was a joke, the passenger was surprised when the immigration officer continued to ask questions about his mustache in a serious tone, making comments to his colleagues and other passengers waiting in the queue. Kumar said he did not understand the comments as the officer, who was an Arab, was speaking in Urdu. He said he does not understand Urdu.
“He finally told me: ‘If you agree to shave off your mustache, I will let you to go’ and kept my passport with him,” said Kumar. Taking even that as a joke, Kumar asked for his passport back again, but was surprised when he was ignored.
“He kept my passport and told me very seriously again to remove my mustache if I wanted it back and called the next person in line,” he said.
Confused and slightly embarrassed, Kumar told the officer that he would not comply with his request and asked to speak to a superior officer. “I started arguing with him and only after asking to speak to his superior officer he returned my passport and allowed me to proceed,” he said.
The incident, which the resident refers to as unnecessary harassment, left him humiliated and embarrassed, Kumar said. He said there is nothing unusual about the style of his mustache, which he keeps trimmed. “I have lived in the UAE for more than nine years, and I have never faced such a situation before — it was very unusual,” said Kumar.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://gulfnews.com
Cape Coral, Florida: Suspect allegedly shines laser at commercial aircraft pilot
Stephen Plock
CAPE CORAL -
Cape Coral police officers arrested a man for pointing a laser at a pilot over the weekend.
Officers were dispatched to a home on the 3000 block of SW 26th Court in reference to a complaint of an unknown subject pointing a laser at an aircraft Saturday night.
Officer say a laser was pointed at a commercial aircraft which was inbound to Southwest Florida International Airport. While responding to the complaint, the Lee County Sheriff's Office Aviation Unit said three people were outside a residence and had also pointed a laser at the unit's chopper.
Cape Coral Police Department officers then responded to the home and began questioning the subjects.
Initially, the suspect, later identified as Stephen Plock, told officers he wasn't aware of a laser at the home. The officer asked him if his nephew and son were playing with a laser -- to which Plock responded that he would ask them.
When questing Plock's nephew, he told the officer "uncle Stephen came out and began using a laser," according to reports.
Plock later admitted to pointing the laser at telephone poles and houses, and later added he had also pointed it toward the sky.
He was arrested and charged with pointing a laser at a driver or pilot.
Sources:
http://www.winknews.com
http://www.abc-7.com
Unruly North Port, Florida airline passenger Janet Dinardi arrested at Bangor International Airport (KBGR), Maine
BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- A North Port, Florida woman was arrested at Bangor International Airport on Sunday after police say she became unruly.
Investigators say on December 29 at about 3:30 p.m. there were a number of passengers at BIA who were waiting to be able to board an Allegiant Air flight to Florida that had been delayed due to weather.
Officer Chris Desmond was in the secure area and saw a woman throwing some personal items around and loudly spouting profanity about the delayed flight. He then observed other passengers get up and move away from her.
Officer Desmond told 54-year-old Janet Dinardi that she would need to stop calm down and stop swearing, as she was making other passengers uncomfortable.
She allegedly continued to use profanity -- now directed at Officer Desmond -- and was warned to stop or she would be arrested for Disorderly Conduct.
Police say Dinardi continued to be loud and verbally abusive. At that time, an Allegiant Air staff member informed Dinardi and Officer Desmond that due to Dinardi's level of intoxication and her unruliness, they would not allow her to board the flight.
Officers escorted Dinardi out of the secured area and to the first floor of the terminal, where they informed her she would need to leave the building.
Dinardi refused to leave the building despite several warnings, and was eventually placed under arrest for Criminal Trespass. She was also charged with Disorderly Conduct as she continued to be loud and disruptive.
Dinardi posted bail, and is scheduled to appear in court in February.
Source: http://www.wtsp.com
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Fraud detectives probe collapse of flight school that cost parents €5m
Richard Kealy training to be a pilot in Florida
The Garda Fraud Squad is probing the collapse of the Pilot Training College that left parents around €5m out of pocket.
The collapse of the Pilot Training College of Ireland (PTC) in July 2012, following a dispute with the Florida Institute of Technology, left hundreds of students in limbo after paying €85,000 up front.
Many were forced to abandon their flight training completely.
The students' parents hope to recoup some money once the liquidation of the company has been completed.
However, they have been warned by solicitors that they stand little chance of getting anything back.
A proposed joint Oireachtas hearing on the issue was dropped without explanation, according to parent Martina Kealy from Castleknock in Dublin, who lost €73,000.
Ms Kealy and her husband Brian remortgaged the family home to pay for son Richard's two-year training course.
When the Waterford college collapsed, they were left with no option but to remortgage the house for a second time to allow him to continue with his studies, this time in Cork.
Ms Kealy said: "My husband has a good job but his salary doesn't cover two remortgages so I now I work too."
Ms Kealy also revealed how one woman used up her life-savings to pay for her nephew's course.
INQUIRY
With no prospect of completing his flight training, the woman's nephew decided to emigrate.
"These are the people I am most worried about," she added.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) gave the PTC its flight training license but denies any responsibility towards the students.
However, Ms Kealy claimed it was the IAA's withdrawal of approval for PTC as a flight training organisation, on the basis of their financial position, in July 2012, which effectively ended PTC's training role.
"In our view there were many failings on the part of the IAA in their oversight of PTC," she said.
"We had great hopes when the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communication in October 2012 decided in public session to undertake a 'forensic inquiry' into the demise of PTC.
Source: http://www.independent.ie
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Laser pointed at aircraft was third such incident in past few weeks, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says
WEST PALM BEACH —
A JetBlue flight landed safely at Palm Beach International Airport
Monday night after someone pointed a green laser into the cockpit.
It was the third such incident in the area since Nov. 29, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
The JetBlue aircraft was landing at PBIA at about 9 p.m.
According to a release from the sheriff’s office, the control tower reported that a person pointed a laser at JetBlue Flight 521 from LaGuardia Airport to Palm Beach.
The said that, on final approach, at about 1,700 feet, he saw a very bright, constant green laser enter the cockpit from the windshield. He believed he was intentionally tracked as the laser made sweeping movements with the laser across the aircraft.
The pilot said he had to shield his eyes to continue trying to land the plane. The pilot believed the laser came from the northeast corner of Belvedere Road and Benoist Farms Road. The PBSO Aviation Unit checked but did not come up with anything.
On Tuesday afternoon, the sheriff’s office sent out a release stating that this has been the third time since Nob. 29 that someone has shined a light at an airplane at PBIA.
The report stated that on Dec. 1, at 8:30 p.m., deputies were told of a similar incident with another JetBlue plane. The laser was seen by a passenger who thought the laser had come from west of State Road 7 and south of Southern Boulevard.
Also, on Nov. 29, a PBSO pilot was flying in the area of Hagen Ranch Road and Lantana Road when the aircraft was struck by a green laser light. The pilot believed a person was tracking them with the beam.
The issue of green lasers being pointed into the cockpits of aircraft’s has been an ongoing problem, the sheriff’s office said.
Misuse of a laser lighting device is a third-degree felony. Knowingly pointing the beam on an individual operating a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft is a second-degree felony if the act results in bodily injury.
If such an act caused an aircraft to crash, the penalty would be a first-degree felony.
Anyone who witnesses the misuse of a laser lighting device is asked to call the nearest law enforcement agency, Crime Stoppers at 800-458-TIPS (8477), or text to tips@cspbc.com.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.palmbeachpost.com
It was the third such incident in the area since Nov. 29, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
The JetBlue aircraft was landing at PBIA at about 9 p.m.
According to a release from the sheriff’s office, the control tower reported that a person pointed a laser at JetBlue Flight 521 from LaGuardia Airport to Palm Beach.
The said that, on final approach, at about 1,700 feet, he saw a very bright, constant green laser enter the cockpit from the windshield. He believed he was intentionally tracked as the laser made sweeping movements with the laser across the aircraft.
The pilot said he had to shield his eyes to continue trying to land the plane. The pilot believed the laser came from the northeast corner of Belvedere Road and Benoist Farms Road. The PBSO Aviation Unit checked but did not come up with anything.
On Tuesday afternoon, the sheriff’s office sent out a release stating that this has been the third time since Nob. 29 that someone has shined a light at an airplane at PBIA.
The report stated that on Dec. 1, at 8:30 p.m., deputies were told of a similar incident with another JetBlue plane. The laser was seen by a passenger who thought the laser had come from west of State Road 7 and south of Southern Boulevard.
Also, on Nov. 29, a PBSO pilot was flying in the area of Hagen Ranch Road and Lantana Road when the aircraft was struck by a green laser light. The pilot believed a person was tracking them with the beam.
The issue of green lasers being pointed into the cockpits of aircraft’s has been an ongoing problem, the sheriff’s office said.
Misuse of a laser lighting device is a third-degree felony. Knowingly pointing the beam on an individual operating a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft is a second-degree felony if the act results in bodily injury.
If such an act caused an aircraft to crash, the penalty would be a first-degree felony.
Anyone who witnesses the misuse of a laser lighting device is asked to call the nearest law enforcement agency, Crime Stoppers at 800-458-TIPS (8477), or text to tips@cspbc.com.
Story and Comments/Reaction: http://www.palmbeachpost.com
Laser light points deputies to suspect's location: Sacramento County, California
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A man accused of pointing a green laser light at a police aircraft was arrested Monday morning.
Justin James Nesbitt, 20, was arrested by Sacramento County sheriff's deputies in his backyard after the aircraft pilot guided deputies to Nesbitt's home, Sgt. Lisa Bowman said.
The pilot and the aircraft occupants were not injured in the incident. Bowman said pointing a laser at an aircraft could distract pilots or impair their eyesight, leading to "devastating" consequences.
Deputies were able to take Nesbitt into custody without incident. He was booked into Sacramento County Jail for felony charges of discharging a laser light at an aircraft. His bail is set to $75,000.
Source: http://www.news10.net
Justin James Nesbitt, 20, was arrested by Sacramento County sheriff's deputies in his backyard after the aircraft pilot guided deputies to Nesbitt's home, Sgt. Lisa Bowman said.
The pilot and the aircraft occupants were not injured in the incident. Bowman said pointing a laser at an aircraft could distract pilots or impair their eyesight, leading to "devastating" consequences.
Deputies were able to take Nesbitt into custody without incident. He was booked into Sacramento County Jail for felony charges of discharging a laser light at an aircraft. His bail is set to $75,000.
Source: http://www.news10.net
Friday, December 06, 2013
Supreme Court to hear Wisconsin airline case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a case involving a Wisconsin air carrier that could determine whether airlines should be protected from lawsuits, as the Transportation Security Administration is, after mistakenly reporting a security threat.
The case involves Appleton-based Air Wisconsin Airlines, which reported concerns about pilot William Hoeper’s mental state before he boarded a plane as a passenger at Dulles Airport in December 2004.
Hoeper knew he would be terminated after failing a series of flight tests on a simulator near Dulles, and Air Wisconsin officials worried that he might be a security threat, according to the airline’s written legal argument.
Hours before the flight, Hoeper “blew up” at instructors after failing his fourth test, yelling and cursing at them, according to the airline. In addition, Hoeper was trained to carry a firearm in the cockpit, although Air Wisconsin officials didn't know if he had a gun with him for the test.
The Colorado Supreme Court denied Air Wisconsin immunity from a defamation lawsuit in the case by finding the airline “overstated” its concerns. Hoeper, who lived in Denver, won $1.4 million in a jury trial.
The Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the law that created TSA and gave it immunity from such lawsuits also granted airlines the same protection.
The immunity granted to TSA was similar to libel protections for newspapers, saying the agency should be protected unless statements are made “with actual knowledge that the disclosure was false, inaccurate or misleading” or “with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity of that disclosure.”
The federal government filed a brief in the case arguing that reporters of potential security threats should be immune because they are critical to maintaining air safety.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., a former head of the transportation committee, argued in another brief that over-reporting of security threats is better than under-reporting.
If Air Wisconsin isn’t granted immunity, the case “would have a chilling effect on the airplane industry’s willingness and timeliness in reporting suspicious activities,” Mica said in a written argument to the court.
A trade group, the International Air Transport Association, with 240 member airlines, also asked the Supreme Court to hear the case by saying the Colorado court was wrong, that it second-guessed Air Wisconsin and conducted a “hair-splitting” analysis of the case.
The purpose of the reporting law, according to the group, is “when in doubt, report.”
But Hoeper responded in a court filing that Air Wisconsin escalated a personal dispute between him and some of the airline’s workers into “a national security emergency.” He complained that the simulator test was conducted unfairly, and then airline officials reported him as mentally unstable and possibly armed.
Hoeper’s flight to Denver as a passenger was surrounded on the ground by emergency vehicles and a snow plow before he was removed by law-enforcement officials and arrested.
But Hoeper, a 20-year commercial pilot, was released after investigators sorted out what happened and he caught another flight later that day, according to his written argument in the case.
Air Wisconsin “had no reason to think that Hoeper was actually armed and lacked any basis for implying to the TSA that Hoeper posed any real threat,” according to his argument.
A decision in the case is expected by June.
Source: http://www.sheboyganpress.com
The case involves Appleton-based Air Wisconsin Airlines, which reported concerns about pilot William Hoeper’s mental state before he boarded a plane as a passenger at Dulles Airport in December 2004.
Hoeper knew he would be terminated after failing a series of flight tests on a simulator near Dulles, and Air Wisconsin officials worried that he might be a security threat, according to the airline’s written legal argument.
Hours before the flight, Hoeper “blew up” at instructors after failing his fourth test, yelling and cursing at them, according to the airline. In addition, Hoeper was trained to carry a firearm in the cockpit, although Air Wisconsin officials didn't know if he had a gun with him for the test.
The Colorado Supreme Court denied Air Wisconsin immunity from a defamation lawsuit in the case by finding the airline “overstated” its concerns. Hoeper, who lived in Denver, won $1.4 million in a jury trial.
The Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the law that created TSA and gave it immunity from such lawsuits also granted airlines the same protection.
The immunity granted to TSA was similar to libel protections for newspapers, saying the agency should be protected unless statements are made “with actual knowledge that the disclosure was false, inaccurate or misleading” or “with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity of that disclosure.”
The federal government filed a brief in the case arguing that reporters of potential security threats should be immune because they are critical to maintaining air safety.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., a former head of the transportation committee, argued in another brief that over-reporting of security threats is better than under-reporting.
If Air Wisconsin isn’t granted immunity, the case “would have a chilling effect on the airplane industry’s willingness and timeliness in reporting suspicious activities,” Mica said in a written argument to the court.
A trade group, the International Air Transport Association, with 240 member airlines, also asked the Supreme Court to hear the case by saying the Colorado court was wrong, that it second-guessed Air Wisconsin and conducted a “hair-splitting” analysis of the case.
The purpose of the reporting law, according to the group, is “when in doubt, report.”
But Hoeper responded in a court filing that Air Wisconsin escalated a personal dispute between him and some of the airline’s workers into “a national security emergency.” He complained that the simulator test was conducted unfairly, and then airline officials reported him as mentally unstable and possibly armed.
Hoeper’s flight to Denver as a passenger was surrounded on the ground by emergency vehicles and a snow plow before he was removed by law-enforcement officials and arrested.
But Hoeper, a 20-year commercial pilot, was released after investigators sorted out what happened and he caught another flight later that day, according to his written argument in the case.
Air Wisconsin “had no reason to think that Hoeper was actually armed and lacked any basis for implying to the TSA that Hoeper posed any real threat,” according to his argument.
A decision in the case is expected by June.
Source: http://www.sheboyganpress.com
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