Well known aviation personalities detained at gunpoint based on erroneous information

John and Martha King, founders of King Schools, were detained upon arrival at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport.  They were heading to Santa Barbara in their Cessan C-172S from San Diego to visit some friends.  During the flight, local authorities received notification from the 'El Paso Intelligence Center' that the aircraft, registration N50545, was stolen.  Santa Barbara police met the airplane on landing, and at gunpoint, proceeded to order both Mr. and Mrs. King out of the aircraft, one at a time, with hands raised and ordered to walk backwards, as done in dangerous traffic stop situations. 

The AOPA and AvWeb both stated that the Kings were detained for over 30 minutes until law enforcement verified it was a case of misscommunication.  The EPIC information was based on a report the plane was stolen 8 years ago, when the N number, N50545 belonged to a Cessna C-150.  The number was recycled and asssigned in 2009 to the C-172S the Kings were flying.  That same year, the first pilot to own this specific C-172S was also detained by police in Wichita, Ks; however, the experience was a little more pleasant with no weapons drawn.  The police in that case were very pleasant with the pilot and worked with him in verifiying the legality of the aircraft.

The issue here is that the attitude of the police in Santa Barbara escalated the situation to a life-threatening situation.  There was no report of the supposed thiefs being armed or dangerous.  According to the AOPA and other aviation writers, there was no need to approach the airplane in the manner as they had, especially without trying in any way to verify the information received statig that the airplane was stolen.   As AOPA mentions in their article, a quick check with the FAA online database or even via telephone would have confirmed that the plane was not the plane stole years ago. The King's even filed a flight plan that included their names, phone number and other personal information that would have identified them well before they landed. 

The police departments of municipalities where airports are located should be trained in confirming information regarding airplanes and pilots.  Information on registration and licensing of airplanes and pilots is available free on the FAA's website and can be accessed in minutes, if not seconds.  This incident will hopefully lead to the AOPA, along with local general aviation interests to work with local, state and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to make the effort to verify the validity and accuracy of information on which they are acting.  The AOPA is also calling on changes to the monitoring of N-numbers to account for recycling of the numbers so that other owners, of airplanes that may share the N-Number of a previously stolen or flagged airplane, are not put into a situation that can endanger themselves or law enforcement.