Five company officials and a pilot associated with a luxury charter jet that crashed before it could take off from Teterboro Airport knew that it was overfueled, federal authorities allege in an indictment charging them with a host of crimes.
By taking an "anything goes" attitude, those charged routinely violated guidelines designed to prevent the kind of serious crash that occurred Feb. 2, 2005, when the jet smashed into several cars as it skidded across busy Route 46, federal authorities in Newark said.
Because of deliberate "overtankering" of fuel, which unsafely pushed the center of gravity forward, the jet couldn't get off the ground, prosecutors allege in the 23-count indictment. The craft eventually crashed through the wall of a furniture warehouse.
Grand jurors agreed that the defendants participated in a “tankering” scheme in order to cut costs and take advantage of less expensive fuel contracts at Teterboro and other locations.
The indictment unsealed this morning -- and obtained by examiner.com -- says now-defunct Platinum Jet Management, LLC, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., flew more than 25 commercial charter flights on two separate aircraft with centers-of-gravity that exceeded the aircrafts’ forward limits, then lied about it to the FAA.
“It is astounding – and criminal – that owners and operators of jet aircraft would repeatedly engage in such a dangerous game with passengers and airplanes loaded to the brim with jet fuel," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr.
"What this indictment alleges is an anything-goes attitude by the defendants to get their planes in the air and maximize profits without regard to passenger safety or compliance with basic regulations,” Marra said.
Charged are:
- Michael Brassington, 35, the President, CEO, chief pilot and co-founder of Platinum Jet;
- His brother, Paul Brassington, 29, a Vice President and co-founder of Platinum Jet;
- Andre Budhan, 42, a managing member and co-founder of Platinum Jet;
- Joseph Singh, 37, the Director of Charters for the company;
- Brien McKenzie, 42, Platinum Jet’s Director of Maintenance; and
- Francis Vieira, 59, a Platinum Jet pilot.
Michael and Paul Brassington, Budhan and McKenzie were arrested this morning in Ft. Lauderdale by Special Agents of the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and the FBI, Marra said.
They are expected to appear before a federal Magistrate Judge today in Ft. Lauderdale.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Vieira and Singh, who are still being sought.
Those charged continually committed "willful violations of regulatory requirements for the operation of commercial charter aircraft," undertaking and conceling dangerous fueling and weight distribution, the indictment alleges.
“The fuel loading was the primary contributing factor in the crash,” Marra said.
The indictment alleges the defendants operated more than 85 commercial flights in violation of federal safety regulations for more than $1 million in compensation.
It says they also dispatched unqualified pilots and pilots without the FAA-required amount of rest to fly chartered flights. To conceal this, the indictment says, Michael Brassington, Vieira and other Platinum Jet pilots signed FAA-mandated flight logs for more than 30 charter-brokered flights falsely indicating that those charters were private, non-profit flights.
The defendants also falsified FAA-required weight-and-balance graphs to conceal the tankering and dangerous weight configuration, the government alleges.
Michael Brassington and Vieira doctored numerous weight-and-balance graphs to conceal excess front-loaded weight before takeoff and instructed other pilots to do the same, it says.
In one case, McKenzie allegedly lied to a Platinum Jet pilot about the weight of one of the aircraft in order to keep the scheme going.
Marra credited Special Agents of the Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III, and Special Agent in Charge Ned E. Schwartz in New York, for the investigation leading to the Indictment.
Marra also acknowledged the assistance of the Flight Standards Division of the FAA in the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott B. McBride of the U.S. Attorney's Government Fraud Unit.
(Photo courtesy msnbc.com)
Comments