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The Security State: It’s Getting Worse For Ordinary Citizens–General Aviation is now Targeted. | JONATHAN TURLEY
Pilot detained, searched for mysterious reasons - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Fresh reports of aircraft searches, CBP has little to say - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Annals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories - James Fallows - The Atlantic
Below and after the jump are two additional stories of the same sort. The first is a long account from Larry Gaines, a small-plane pilot from California who had a similar episode last year. The story is long and detailed, and will be riveting for those in the aviation world. The summary for general readers is this.
A private pilot set out from an airport in the Sierra foothills of California, headed to Oklahoma;
He made the trip "VFR" -- under visual flight rules, choosing his own path and knowing that he did not need to check in with air-traffic controllers as long as he stayed out of certain kinds of airspace (around big airports, in military zones, or subject to other restrictions).
He eventually landed at a tiny little airport in rural Oklahoma, where a friend met him and took him home for dinner.
The pilot realized that he had dropped his eyeglass case at the airport and went back to retrieve it.
At which point all hell broke loose, as he describes in detail. In short, local, county, and federal enforcement agents were there to inspect him and his plane -- and when he asked why, they said that his "suspicious" profile was "flight west to east, from California."
Again to put this in perspective for people outside the airplane world, a person who was doing absolutely nothing illegal and was embarked on a perfectly normal trip from place to place, became the object of an extensive and costly manhunt -- on grounds of general "suspicion." As he says at the end of his account (taken from an email to a friend):
The whole episode lasted about 2 hours. While the officers who questioned me were not overtly or personally threatening, the situation was intimidating and threatening. I was never told details of the "profile", so I don't know how to prevent this from happening again, aside from talking to federal employees at all times while flying. I am concerned that DEA and DHS now have files on me. This distresses me GREATLY. I am equally concerned that my plane's tail number is now suspicious in the eyes of law enforcement....
Pilot detained, searched for mysterious reasons - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Fresh reports of aircraft searches, CBP has little to say - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Annals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories - James Fallows - The Atlantic
Below and after the jump are two additional stories of the same sort. The first is a long account from Larry Gaines, a small-plane pilot from California who had a similar episode last year. The story is long and detailed, and will be riveting for those in the aviation world. The summary for general readers is this.
A private pilot set out from an airport in the Sierra foothills of California, headed to Oklahoma;
He made the trip "VFR" -- under visual flight rules, choosing his own path and knowing that he did not need to check in with air-traffic controllers as long as he stayed out of certain kinds of airspace (around big airports, in military zones, or subject to other restrictions).
He eventually landed at a tiny little airport in rural Oklahoma, where a friend met him and took him home for dinner.
The pilot realized that he had dropped his eyeglass case at the airport and went back to retrieve it.
At which point all hell broke loose, as he describes in detail. In short, local, county, and federal enforcement agents were there to inspect him and his plane -- and when he asked why, they said that his "suspicious" profile was "flight west to east, from California."
Again to put this in perspective for people outside the airplane world, a person who was doing absolutely nothing illegal and was embarked on a perfectly normal trip from place to place, became the object of an extensive and costly manhunt -- on grounds of general "suspicion." As he says at the end of his account (taken from an email to a friend):
The whole episode lasted about 2 hours. While the officers who questioned me were not overtly or personally threatening, the situation was intimidating and threatening. I was never told details of the "profile", so I don't know how to prevent this from happening again, aside from talking to federal employees at all times while flying. I am concerned that DEA and DHS now have files on me. This distresses me GREATLY. I am equally concerned that my plane's tail number is now suspicious in the eyes of law enforcement....
