Not sure how I missed this...
Plane overshoots Teterboro runway, is stopped by arrestor bed
Friday, October 1, 2010
...It was at least the second time that an arrestor bed has stopped a plane at Teterboro since they were installed one year after a jet ran off a runway in 2005, hitting cars and a warehouse on Route 46.
Well, here's next month's find:
Jet company president guilty on most serious charge in Teterboro crash caseMonday, November 15, 2010
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITER
The former president of a luxury charter company whose plane barreled off a Teterboro Airport runway in 2005 put profits ahead of safety in a scheme to overload jets with cheap fuel, a jury ruled Monday.
The jury of seven men and five women returned split verdicts in Newark against the Guyana-born brothers Michael and Paul Brassington, executives and co-founders of the now-defunct Platinum Jet Management LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Michael Brassington, the company’s former president, chief operating officer and chief pilot, was portrayed by prosecutors as the architect of a brazen scheme to defraud passengers, charter brokers, the Federal Aviation Administration and others by misrepresenting his company’s compliance with safety regulations.
He was found guilty on the most serious charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft in flight. The jury found him guilty on eight additional charges and cleared him on 12 counts of making false statements.
His younger brother, a former vice president largely responsible for marketing, was found guilty only of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was acquitted on four other counts.
The charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft in flight, which normally is used in terrorism cases, related to Michael Brassington’s concealment of dangerous over-fueling and weight distribution practices that caused the jet’s center of gravity to exceed its forward weight limit for takeoff, contributing to the Feb. 2, 2005, Teterboro crash, authorities said.
Prosecutors charged he misled the flight officer responsible for fueling and preparing the weight and balance graphs by informing him that the plane was 1,000 pounds lighter than it actually was. As a result, the twinjet’s nose failed to lift off at the expected speed, causing the pilot to abort the takeoff as he quickly ran out of runway.
Traveling at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour, the Bombardier Challenger 600 jet plowed through a steel perimeter fence and struck two cars as it crossed six lanes of Route 46 before crashing into a clothing warehouse and bursting into flames. Both pilots and two passengers were seriously injured.
“A pattern of fraud and deception is not a business plan,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement. “Today’s verdict confirms that there are consequences when you break the law to boost your bottom line.”
Lawyers for the two defendants declined comment after the verdict, which came on the fourth day of deliberations in a month-long trial.
In February 2009, four years after the crash, the Brassingtons were arrested at their homes in Fort Lauderdale along with three other Platinum Jet executives and a pilot. Another pilot, who was in control of the plane when it crashed, was later indicted and is awaiting trial in Florida.
During the Brassingtons’ trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott McBride and J. Fortier Imbert accused the brothers of operating a “rogue” charter service that regularly put their rich and famous passengers at risk in order to save money by dangerously over-fueling planes at airports where fuel was cheap. The brothers also were accused of using planes and personnel that were not certified for commercial flights, and falsifying flight logs to conceal violations.
Defense lawyers Michael Salnick and Bruce Reinhart acknowledged some paperwork errors and mislabeling of flights, but argued that their clients never intentionally broke the law.
With a client list that included celebrities like rapper Jay-Z, singer-actress Beyoncé, rocker Jon Bon Jovi, basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and football legend Joe Montana, the Brassingtons had no incentive to save pennies on discount fuel, their attorneys said. The defense also presented testimony that a mechanical problem led to the crash.
Platinum Jet was founded in August 2000 and flew more than 100 charter flights and collected more than $3 million in revenue over the next 15 months without the required certificate for commercial operations, prosecutors said. It later shared another company’s certificate but continued to skirt FAA safety rules and falsify required paperwork, the indictment alleged.
The judge dismissed the charges against one co-defendant, Brian McKenzie, Platinum’s former director of maintenance, after the government rested, while the charges against John Kimberling, who piloted the ill-fated Teterboro flight, were transferred to Florida for trial because of his health. The other defendants, co-founder and managing member Andre Budhan; director of charters Joseph Singh; and pilot Francis Viera; pleaded guilty to fraud charges before the trial. Budhan and Singh testified for the government.
U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh continued the brothers’ bail and set sentencing for March 17. Paul Brassington faces up to five years in prison while his brother faces a maximum of 20 years on the aircraft-endangerment charge alone.
E-mail: sampson@northjersey.com
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