Very strange plane 'crash' just north of me last night...

[karlrschneider]

http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=116557

A few details just coming out. :eyes:

[angstlessk]

1. Very strange indeed...sounds like he was importing Mexicans?

must be rich ones too at three at a time in a plane?

[NMDemDist2]

2. i don't doubt the crash, but where was he going and what was he

hauling??

:shrug:

something fishy (excuse the pun) going on there

[Wiley50]

3. Yeah, That's a pretty weird one Karl

What is a young Okie with no flight papers doing with three mexicans aboard?
Who let the guy off the ground anyway?
OK. I see that he owned the plane
so in OK, it figures
You got the bucks, no one hassles you

Reminds me of the time Roger Hardesty
dropped his Bell Jet Ranger onto power lines
outside his office.
Yeah, I know he's plenty capable in a fixed wing
But the scuttlebutt is he didn't have a chopper license
Far as I know, he never flew one again.

[karlrschneider]

6. He owned the Bellanca? I couldn't make out the N number from the picture

but I did hear on the radio earlier something about a bank forclosing on the same guy for a million plus for some sort of default loan - a car dealership? Still trying to find out what the hell...and watching the Chiefs & Chargers game too. :-)

[madokie]

17. hawks motors in pryor. screwed many people locally or so I'm told

lots of fraululent loans, quite a mess.

[Jacobin]

4. No pilot's license?

[karlrschneider]

7. So they say. That could mean a lot of different things, though...

maybe he wasn't legally 'current', didn't have a proper medical...or maybe never had a license. The thing that strikes me as VERY odd is that I have never ever heard of someone being arrested in this manner by local authorities. It's WAY beyond strange...there's something going on here that isn't coming out. :eyes:

[Tellurian]

5. Drug runner, maybe?

The survivor didn't have a pilot's license but owned a plane?

I've been to Pryor and Jay, OK. Pryor was a relatively small Main St. town
consisting of friendly people and a hometown restaurant. It may have grown
since then, I don't know. Great, well trained Quarter horses in that vicinity.

[karlrschneider]

8. I dunno, it doesn't fit the profile of a drug runner. Passengers? nope...

that wouldn't be protocol. Of course you can buy a plane without a pilot's license same as you can buy a car without a driver's license.

Pryor is about 15 miles north - it's a fairly sleepy little town, about 12,000 I'd guess. It is on US highway 69 which is a major N-S route for surface traffic (they do catch a lot of illicit drugs on this road but I don't see how that really ties into the airplane thing unless he might have picked up a 'shipment' to take to....Memphis or someplace to the east??? I really can't figure it out.

[Wiley50]

9. Karl, We use to have a drug ring around here

that would drop their load into Old Hickory Lake
and have buddies in a boat to fetch it
then they would land totally clean

They never did catch them

[karlrschneider]

10. Sure, that's a standard method when the cargo is coming from Mexico

but it doesn't seem to me very useful in this case. ...rats, I'm trying to watch the football game I guess I better concentrate on that for now...;-)

[Wiley50]

13. Karl, this just occurred to me

If the dude had just lost his car dealership
and felt the need to off his mexican connection
He might need a drink or two
to get up his nerve

Makes as much sense as anything

[karlrschneider]

14. I guess anything's possible...but a 15 year and a 20 year old?

And I can't figure out how they were identified so fast...full names both "from Mexico"? Maybe they had passports or green cards but that isn't typical here in eastern Oklahoma. Maybe some more info will be forthcoming...or not...??? :eyes:

[Lurking Dem]

11. I GOTTA spend more time

on the lake!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Very strange, indeed.

Running illegals, perhaps? FWI, too, which explains in the first instance why they arrested him. You won't be arrested for not having a valid pilot's license; that's a civil matter for the FAA. But flying while intoxicated is a crime under state law. And since his passengers died, I suppose they are charging him with the equivalent of criminal vehicular homicide (manslaughter). An odd case, for sure.

[karlrschneider]

15. I guess the 'manslaughter' charge is what piqued my interest.

It isn't something an automobile driver would normally be charged with until an investigation is done, certainly not within hours. There's more than meets the eye here...not that it's any of my business specifically, but having been a pilot/instructor in this area on and off for 35 years, I can't help
having an interest in it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Maybe it's this:

OK Rev. Stat. §21 711. "Manslaughter in the first degree defined.
Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree in the following cases:
1. When perpetrated without a design to effect death by a person while engaged in the commission of a misdemeanor..."

Since flying while intoxicated is a misdemeanor, and while FWI the guy had an accident that killed his passengers, apparently they can charge him with manslaughter. This intrigues me, too; I teach a college aviation law course. I'm not in OK, but I think I'll keep tracking this case.

[Rowdyboy]

18. Intriguing little story....Hope to hear more details as they come out....

[Horse with no Name]

19. Do you think it was possible

That he was escaping to Mexico and paid the local guy to find local Mexican guys to get him settled wherever he was going?
Sounds like leaving the country might not be a bad idea for a man in his situation.:shrug: