LN-MOW
14-10-2005, 17:03
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Pilot crashed plane in 2003, FAA says
Buford man charged with stealing jet found in Gwinnett
By DAVE HIRSCHMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/14/05
The pilot of the stolen corporate jet that landed at Gwinnett's Briscoe Field last weekend pulled off the aviation equivalent of driving the wrong way on a busy highway at night with the lights out, aviation experts said.
"I don't think the five passengers on that plane had any idea how much danger they were in," said Steve Haslup, a flight instructor who teaches at Briscoe Field where the Cessna Citation VII landed late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. "It's remarkable that no one was hurt."
FAA officials said the plane's transponder was turned off or disabled so that air traffic controllers couldn't easily track it on radar as it approached Atlanta air space, among the busiest in the world. The pilot didn't file a flight plan or talk to air traffic controllers, and the plane likely flew through low clouds and fog as it approached for landing.
Daniel Andrew Wolcott, 22, of Buford, was charged with theft for allegedly taking the $7 million jet on a joyride from St. Augustine, Fla., with five friends onboard.
The passengers, named in Wolcott's arrest warrant, were identified as Nathaniel Lewis Baker, Michael Coffey, James Corbett, Ian Andrew Smith and Mark Zwak. They told police that they were unaware that the plane was stolen. Smith was reached by telephone Thursday, but declined to comment.
Wolcott remained in jail Thursday.
The warrant accuses Wolcott of endangering the bodily safety of the five passengers by "disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk(.)" It further says that Wolcott flew the jet knowing that the fuel level was too low and that he "disconnected cockpit equipment to track (the) plane in case of emergency."
Wolcott is a commercial pilot with multiengine and instrument ratings and reportedly is licensed to fly a Westwind corporate jet. But he's not rated to fly a Citation, a plane that usually requires two pilots.
"The plane has a reputation of being easy to fly from a stick-and-rudder standpoint," Haslup said. "But a pilot has to have detailed knowledge of the systems on the aircraft. He has to know what to do when the electric or hydraulic systems fail and how to handle a wide variety of emergencies. Everything on that airplane had to work perfectly on that flight, and apparently it did."
The plane is one of nine aircraft owned by Pinnacle Air Jet Charter of Springdale, Ark. It reportedly had minor external damage, but company officials flew it out of Gwinnett Thursday.
John George, marketing director at Pinnacle, said no one at the company knew Wolcott before the incident, and George has no idea why the 10-seat aircraft was targeted.
"It appears to be a random act," George said.
Dan Hubbard, a spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association, defended airport security despite the apparent lapses that allowed the Citation to be flown without the owner's knowledge.
"There's no excuse for what this individual apparently did," Hubbard said. "But business aircraft aren't easily penetrated or moved. You have to understand the complex process of gaining access to these aircraft, starting them and getting them into flight. That's highly specialized knowledge."
Chris Dancy, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said aircraft thefts are rare. About six planes have been stolen in the United States this year from a fleet of 211,000 privately owned aircraft, he said.
"I've never heard of something like this happening with a business jet," he said. "It's virtually unheard of."
Aircraft owners groups said they were unaware of new rules or practices designed to prevent similar incidents in the future. But Haslup, the flight instructor, said he fears additional regulations.
"This wasn't a terrorist threat," he said. "But I'd hate to see a backlash that causes more legislation. All that is going to erode the freedoms that make aviation in this country so great."
Wolcott was the pilot of a single-engine Cessna trainer that struck a flock of geese over Alabama on May 3, 2003. According to an FAA report, Wolcott prepared to land the plane in an open field but balked at the last moment as the propeller-driven plane neared a line of trees.
"The aircraft touched down and while still at a high rate of speed was approaching a tree line," the report said. "The pilot believed that he would not get the aircraft stopped in time, so he initiated a go around, applied full throttle and rolled the aircraft to the left to make an opening between trees at which time the left wing impacted a tree approximately 40 feet high."
The airplane came to rest upside down beyond the tree line. A National Guard helicopter that happed to be in the area flew Wolcott to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.
— Staff writer Ken Sugiura contributed to this report.
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Pilot crashed plane in 2003, FAA says
Buford man charged with stealing jet found in Gwinnett
By DAVE HIRSCHMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/14/05
The pilot of the stolen corporate jet that landed at Gwinnett's Briscoe Field last weekend pulled off the aviation equivalent of driving the wrong way on a busy highway at night with the lights out, aviation experts said.
"I don't think the five passengers on that plane had any idea how much danger they were in," said Steve Haslup, a flight instructor who teaches at Briscoe Field where the Cessna Citation VII landed late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. "It's remarkable that no one was hurt."
FAA officials said the plane's transponder was turned off or disabled so that air traffic controllers couldn't easily track it on radar as it approached Atlanta air space, among the busiest in the world. The pilot didn't file a flight plan or talk to air traffic controllers, and the plane likely flew through low clouds and fog as it approached for landing.
Daniel Andrew Wolcott, 22, of Buford, was charged with theft for allegedly taking the $7 million jet on a joyride from St. Augustine, Fla., with five friends onboard.
The passengers, named in Wolcott's arrest warrant, were identified as Nathaniel Lewis Baker, Michael Coffey, James Corbett, Ian Andrew Smith and Mark Zwak. They told police that they were unaware that the plane was stolen. Smith was reached by telephone Thursday, but declined to comment.
Wolcott remained in jail Thursday.
The warrant accuses Wolcott of endangering the bodily safety of the five passengers by "disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk(.)" It further says that Wolcott flew the jet knowing that the fuel level was too low and that he "disconnected cockpit equipment to track (the) plane in case of emergency."
Wolcott is a commercial pilot with multiengine and instrument ratings and reportedly is licensed to fly a Westwind corporate jet. But he's not rated to fly a Citation, a plane that usually requires two pilots.
"The plane has a reputation of being easy to fly from a stick-and-rudder standpoint," Haslup said. "But a pilot has to have detailed knowledge of the systems on the aircraft. He has to know what to do when the electric or hydraulic systems fail and how to handle a wide variety of emergencies. Everything on that airplane had to work perfectly on that flight, and apparently it did."
The plane is one of nine aircraft owned by Pinnacle Air Jet Charter of Springdale, Ark. It reportedly had minor external damage, but company officials flew it out of Gwinnett Thursday.
John George, marketing director at Pinnacle, said no one at the company knew Wolcott before the incident, and George has no idea why the 10-seat aircraft was targeted.
"It appears to be a random act," George said.
Dan Hubbard, a spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association, defended airport security despite the apparent lapses that allowed the Citation to be flown without the owner's knowledge.
"There's no excuse for what this individual apparently did," Hubbard said. "But business aircraft aren't easily penetrated or moved. You have to understand the complex process of gaining access to these aircraft, starting them and getting them into flight. That's highly specialized knowledge."
Chris Dancy, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said aircraft thefts are rare. About six planes have been stolen in the United States this year from a fleet of 211,000 privately owned aircraft, he said.
"I've never heard of something like this happening with a business jet," he said. "It's virtually unheard of."
Aircraft owners groups said they were unaware of new rules or practices designed to prevent similar incidents in the future. But Haslup, the flight instructor, said he fears additional regulations.
"This wasn't a terrorist threat," he said. "But I'd hate to see a backlash that causes more legislation. All that is going to erode the freedoms that make aviation in this country so great."
Wolcott was the pilot of a single-engine Cessna trainer that struck a flock of geese over Alabama on May 3, 2003. According to an FAA report, Wolcott prepared to land the plane in an open field but balked at the last moment as the propeller-driven plane neared a line of trees.
"The aircraft touched down and while still at a high rate of speed was approaching a tree line," the report said. "The pilot believed that he would not get the aircraft stopped in time, so he initiated a go around, applied full throttle and rolled the aircraft to the left to make an opening between trees at which time the left wing impacted a tree approximately 40 feet high."
The airplane came to rest upside down beyond the tree line. A National Guard helicopter that happed to be in the area flew Wolcott to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.
— Staff writer Ken Sugiura contributed to this report.