(see update at bottom) .... something preposterous happened over the weekend in Santa Barbara. I've resisted mentioning it, because it involves one of my hobby-horse subjects (general aviation). Nonetheless I think it deserves broader attention than it has received so far.
The main characters here are John and Martha King. If you have come anywhere near the flying world, they need no further introduction -- and very vivid associations will spring immediately to mind. They run a well-known set of flight schools, but beyond that they are omnipresent because of their somewhat hokey, but extremely wholesome and all-American toned, set of instructional videos. Here are the Kings, in their trademark matching shirts:
![KingSchools.png]()
Oprah isn't really the right comparison among mainstream celebrities, since she is more blindingly famous, plus hipper-seeming. Maybe Mister Rogers, in his heyday on PBS, would come closest to The Kings in being well known and also unembarrassed about his earnest tone. Maybe I'd add a little dash of Ron Popeil, the infomercial titan, since like him the Kings seem genuinely excited about the message they have to impart to their viewers. And a touch of the "Well, Timmy... " narrator from 1950s-era instructional videos, or Clark Griswold from the National Lampoon Vacation movies. You get the idea.
Unlike Clark Griswold, the Kings are highly accomplished at what they do. As they point out on their site, "John and Martha are the only husband and wife to both hold every category and class of FAA pilot and instructor certificates." That is, from gliders to helicopters to jets, they are certified as practitioners and teachers.
Over the weekend, the Kings were detained at gunpoint by Santa Barbara police and held in handcuffs for half an hour, for reason that appear not to have been their fault in any way. The details are here and here, but the heart of the story is this:
- Eight or so years ago, a small Cessna 150 airplane was stolen in Texas;
- Each aircraft has a registration number, often known in America as the "N-number" since it begins with an N for US-registered aircraft. When a plane is destroyed, stolen, exported, or otherwise put out of commission, the FAA eventually "deregisters" its N-number and makes it eligible for reassignment to a new plane;
- Several years after the theft in Texas, the FAA deregistered the stolen plane's N-number -- N50545 -- and made it eligible for reassignment;
- Last year, that number was assigned to a small Cessna 172
- The Kings had leased that plane and were making a perfectly normal business trip. But some security agency - reportedly a branch of the DEA -- still had the number on its "stolen aircraft" watch list. When the Kings filed an instrument flight plan with that number, the DEA noticed it and told local police to apprehend the Kings as soon as they landed. And then, as reported on the AOPA site:
Later, perhaps, a larger point or more information. For now, just noting the news for the record.
____
UPDATE: Max Trescott, who according to his web site was recently the "Certified Flight Instructor of the Year," reports that this is the second time local police have mistakenly detained people flying this same plane. The previous time was in Kansas early in 2009. What this means, of course, is that the same out of date "stolen plane" info concerning N50545 remained in the DEA's (or some agency's) files even after it was shown to be incorrect.
Another reader writes in with the fair point that this is less a case of "security theater" than of still-disconnected government databases, long after they were supposed (at great expense) to be combined. More on this after a while.
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Aviation - Aircraft - Fixed-wing aircraft - General aviation - United States
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The main characters here are John and Martha King. If you have come anywhere near the flying world, they need no further introduction -- and very vivid associations will spring immediately to mind. They run a well-known set of flight schools, but beyond that they are omnipresent because of their somewhat hokey, but extremely wholesome and all-American toned, set of instructional videos. Here are the Kings, in their trademark matching shirts:
Oprah isn't really the right comparison among mainstream celebrities, since she is more blindingly famous, plus hipper-seeming. Maybe Mister Rogers, in his heyday on PBS, would come closest to The Kings in being well known and also unembarrassed about his earnest tone. Maybe I'd add a little dash of Ron Popeil, the infomercial titan, since like him the Kings seem genuinely excited about the message they have to impart to their viewers. And a touch of the "Well, Timmy... " narrator from 1950s-era instructional videos, or Clark Griswold from the National Lampoon Vacation movies. You get the idea.Unlike Clark Griswold, the Kings are highly accomplished at what they do. As they point out on their site, "John and Martha are the only husband and wife to both hold every category and class of FAA pilot and instructor certificates." That is, from gliders to helicopters to jets, they are certified as practitioners and teachers.
Over the weekend, the Kings were detained at gunpoint by Santa Barbara police and held in handcuffs for half an hour, for reason that appear not to have been their fault in any way. The details are here and here, but the heart of the story is this:
- Eight or so years ago, a small Cessna 150 airplane was stolen in Texas;
- Each aircraft has a registration number, often known in America as the "N-number" since it begins with an N for US-registered aircraft. When a plane is destroyed, stolen, exported, or otherwise put out of commission, the FAA eventually "deregisters" its N-number and makes it eligible for reassignment to a new plane;
- Several years after the theft in Texas, the FAA deregistered the stolen plane's N-number -- N50545 -- and made it eligible for reassignment;
- Last year, that number was assigned to a small Cessna 172
- The Kings had leased that plane and were making a perfectly normal business trip. But some security agency - reportedly a branch of the DEA -- still had the number on its "stolen aircraft" watch list. When the Kings filed an instrument flight plan with that number, the DEA noticed it and told local police to apprehend the Kings as soon as they landed. And then, as reported on the AOPA site:
According to John King, who was piloting the airplane, upon landing at Santa Barbara, the airplane was directed to a remote part of the airport instead of the FBO [Fixed Base Operator - the normal place for small planes] where the Kings planned to park. There, four police cruisers were parked. After shutting down the engine, King was ordered out of the aircraft with his hands up and told to back slowly toward the officers, who had guns drawn. After he was handcuffed and placed in a cruiser, Martha was ordered to similarly exit the aircraft. She too was handcuffed and placed in a separate cruiser.Yes, I know: no one was hurt or really seriously inconvenienced. Far, far worse happens every day in big cities and along the border -- and generally to people who, unlike the Kings, don't have the resources and connections to get their story out. And so on. Still, we have people who (by all reports) have done nothing wrong, either in this incident or in a past pattern of behavior, who are held at gunpoint because security agencies didn't update their files. And the general reaction in the flying world is: If John and Martha King, epitomes of the wholesome, can be taken as security threats, how much more suspicious must everyone else seem?
Later, perhaps, a larger point or more information. For now, just noting the news for the record.
____
UPDATE: Max Trescott, who according to his web site was recently the "Certified Flight Instructor of the Year," reports that this is the second time local police have mistakenly detained people flying this same plane. The previous time was in Kansas early in 2009. What this means, of course, is that the same out of date "stolen plane" info concerning N50545 remained in the DEA's (or some agency's) files even after it was shown to be incorrect.
Another reader writes in with the fair point that this is less a case of "security theater" than of still-disconnected government databases, long after they were supposed (at great expense) to be combined. More on this after a while.
