Another Warrantless Aircraft Search ( Iowa)

[AdamZ]

This is really just outrageous.

First John and Marth King get taken out of their 172 at Gunpoint
Then Ted gets the aviation version of a colonoscopy in Kansas
Then The Glider Pilot in Darlington is instructed to land by the local sheriff and given greif for a ficticious no fly zone violation: and,
now this guy from NY and his friend get "ramp checked not once but twice in four days, with an incredibly invasive warrantless search.

Please Please Please keep this out of SZ. If it drifts we will move it.

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2013/130516pilot-detained-searched-for-mysterious-reasons.html?WT.mc_id=130517epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan

 

[Jim Logajan]

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1112552&postcount=2

Got a more authoritative source?

For example, if we start with this authoritative statement:

"A citizen of the United States has a public right of transit through the navigable airspace,"

(http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/40103) then one is closer to determining whether flying is a "right" or a "privilege". Me, I take it as being a right - not a privilege - because the right to use any form of transport should be the default state of things in places where government is considered to be a servant to the needs of the public, rather than the other way around. Specifically that flying is one of those "unalienable rights" that are mentioned in the U.S. declaration of independence. [Insert patriotic flag wave here.] It should only be minimally regulated in ways that insure joint safety.

 

[Jim Logajan]

2. Someone "tipped" the cops that the pilot was carrying contraband. Either in good faith or falsely to get the guy harassed. I'd put my money on this one. The cops will keep their mouths shut because they don't want to look like greater fools. Nor do they want to be held accountable for their overreaching.

Do a net search for "celebrity swatting" to find out just how often the police are used or abused by anonymous tipsters.