There comes a point when enough is enough and the Government,
in my humble opinion, has clearly abused its authority for no known rational
reason. As a pilot, I have the potential
to personally become a victim of this abuse of authority. I am actually more concerned that this is the
government acting without any legal authority, it is the “because we can”
authority, and that may be even worse.
Allow me to explain the situation.
Two men from New York City were flying in single-engine
private plane on May 1, 2013. The pair was
on a business trip flying from New Jersey to California. They landed in Oklahoma and were briefly
detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Officers
who looked through the plane. The
inquiries were relatively unobtrusive and the pilot and passenger thought
little of it. It was not until May 5, 2013, when the pair landed in Iowa City,
Iowa that something went awry. They are in the real estate business and make
these flights routinely. They landed in Iowa
City for a scheduled refueling stop when they were descended upon by CBP’s Air
and Marine Operations Unit, Homeland Security and local police. The flight was on an Instrument Flight Plan
and had been tracked by Air Traffic Controllers throughout the trip. That is how CBP knew where and when to stop
and search the aircraft.
Police held the pilot, passenger and their plane for over
two hours while they searched every compartment and crevice on the plane and
every piece of luggage and container on it.
These officials then left all of the aircraft compartments, luggage,
contents and other items open and on the tarmac for the pilot and passenger to
clean up. Officials refused to answer
any questions put to them by the pilot.
They would not explain what they were looking for, why they had chosen
this aircraft or the grounds on which the search was based. They just stated, with no further
explanation, that the pilot had no choice.
To describe the search as “intrusive” is an understatement. When the pilot raised objections to CBP’s
actions, the pilot was given only three options: wait inside the airport office, wait quietly
outside or be detained in handcuffs.
The pilot has never been convicted of a crime, is an
observant Jew and has never used drugs and there is no reason to believe they were
involved in any criminal activity at the time of this search. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association,
of which I and over 400,000 others are members, have received reports of similar
occurrences in approximately a dozen cases.
Aircraft have been stopped from taking off and were searched by CBT,
having never left nor re-entered the country.
Now, the last time I checked, Customs and Border Protection
was responsible for, well, customs and border protection. Why would CBT have any jurisdiction to stop
and search this, or any other aircraft, similarly situated? This was a domestic flight that never left
the country at any time. They were not
entering the country. Last I heard;
smuggling illegal aliens from New Jersey to California was not big business;
they have enough undocumented workers there already. I think
they have some explaining to do, and should be made to do so, in front of a
Federal Judge, if necessary.
Let me put this situation in terms closer to home. You and your business partner are on a
business trip in your car. You stop at a
gas station and are suddenly surrounded by armed men wearing uniforms of
Customs and Border Protection. They
order you to open all the doors, the trunk and the engine compartment. You are not asked, you are ordered. They tell you, if you object; they will just handcuff
you and do it anyway. These CBP Officers
then proceed to open the glove box, the center console and empty the contents
onto the ground. They remove the seats from
the car and throw them on the ground. They
remove your luggage from the trunk, open it and also empty this onto the ground
as they go through each item. They
search the engine compartment. They will
not tell you why they are searching your vehicle, what they are searching for
or what gives them the right or authority to do this. They inform you that your repeated objections
are obstructing them and they will either arrest you or just handcuff you to
shut you up. When they are finished,
they just get in their cars and leave, leaving all your stuff on the ground at
the gas station for you to clean up.
Think about how you would feel if you were the victim of
this action. After it is all over, you
want answers, so you make Freedom of Information Requests regarding the actions
and any legal justification. Months, or
even years, later, you get one of two responses; a terse statement that they
don’t have to provide you any information on the grounds of “National Security;”
or, you get a written reply that is more black than white because they have
blacked out 80% of all the information on the page with a black magic marker,
and the 80% is anything that would give you any inkling of what is going
on. Oh, and they don’t even tell you why
they have the right to invoke a “National Security” exemption. Now you are left to sue them in Federal
Court. They laugh at you because they
will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money, not their money,
to keep you in Court until you are flat broke.
I fly a private airplane.
I love to fly, and I love to travel, but flying and traveling has become
less enjoyable because, in spite of the fact that I do nothing wrong, I am
targeted because I am a pilot, own a plane and someone in the government
apparently takes exception to this.
