Here's more detail from this morning's Miami Herald. Even if the cocaine bust had nothing to do with the crash, the feds may come out with new reporting regs due to the visibility of this mishap. One of the incidents that prompted FAA drug testing for airline pilots was a fatal commuter crash in Colorado years ago where cocaine was found in one of the pilots' remains.
And no, I did not mean to imply in any way that someone caught with crack cocaine and caught dealing in stolen property was unfit to command a charter airliner out of South Florida <g>.
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Published Thursday, August 30, 2001
Court let pilot in crash conceal drug arrest
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ AND ERIKA BOLSTAD
[email protected]
The pilot of the twin-engine plane that crashed Saturday in the Bahamas, killing him, R&B singer Aaliyah and seven others, went out of his way to make sure that his employers didn't find out about his recent drug arrest.
Luis Morales III, of Fort Lauderdale, pleaded no contest Aug. 13 to charges of cocaine possession and dealing in stolen property. That was less than two weeks before the plane crashed on takeoff at Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco Island.
The court treated Morales like many first-time drug defendants, withholding adjudication -- meaning no conviction would appear on the pilot's record if he successfully completed three years of probation.
After the sentence was announced, Morales, 30, persuaded Broward Circuit Judge Royce Agner to add a special condition: that as long as he provided a constant stream of paycheck stubs to verify his employment, state probation officials were ordered not to contact his employers.
"It's not as unusual as it sounds. It does happen,'' Assistant State Attorney Jorie Tress said of the don't-call-my-employer condition. "Some defendants ask for it, and sometimes the judges grant it.''
Broward Assistant Public Defender Lorena Graņa called it "in every way, a very typical case. He didn't have any priors. He was very remorseful. He was not your typical criminal or the typical defendant we see at the PD's office. He was always polite. He was always punctual. His parents were with him and really concerned. He really deserved probation.''
But it wasn't typical in one way. Since Morales was a charter pilot, the safety of his passengers depended on his good judgment and sobriety.
Officials of Golden Airlines, which employed Morales at the time he entered his plea, said Wednesday they knew nothing of his drug arrest.
Morales was fired Friday, 24 hours before the fatal crash. It had nothing to do with drugs; he simply failed to show up for work two days in a row. He apparently had been on the job for one day with another employer, Blackhawk International Airways, when the Cessna 402B he was piloting for Blackhawk went down shortly after takeoff from Great Abaco en route to Opa-locka Airport.
CAUSE UNKNOWN
The cause of the crash has not been determined, but the probe is focusing on the possibility the plane was overloaded.
Although the withholding of adjudication by the court meant that Morales would not have a criminal record, in the eyes of the Federal Aviation Administration it was the same as a criminal conviction.
Morales was required to report the no-contest plea to the drug charge if he wanted to maintain his FAA commercial pilot certification.
But not right away.
Unlike some professional licensing organizations that require their members to report drug- and alcohol-related problems shortly after an arrest, the FAA requires pilots to report DUI and other motor-vehicle convictions within 60 days of a judge's final order.
Gary J. Trichter, a Houston defense attorney who specializes in DUI law and its application to FAA licensing issues, said the agency has a strong record of monitoring pilot safety. The FAA has the power to suspend or revoke a license after one offense, but in most cases the self-reporting system is used to "red-flag'' pilots, Trichter said.
"The agency has a pretty strong record of enforcement, especially with pilots who fail to report within the 60-day period,'' Trichter said.
In Morales' case, the no-contest plea would have served as his "first strike'' under an FAA program aimed at monitoring potential problem pilots. Any pilot who violates substance-abuse laws twice in a three-year period faces an automatic license suspension and possible revocation.
Friends and families of the victims were surprised to hear about the pilot's drug arrest. Becky Gallin, who buried her 41-year-old ex-husband, Scott, on Wednesday in Miami, said the survivors need to ask some serious questions.
"I'm going to speak with my attorney,'' Gallin said. "I think there's a lot of questions there that need to be answered. I think it's wrong. It's a wrongful death.''
Morales was arrested July 7 by the Broward Sheriff's Office in an area of Pompano Beach known for drug sales. A deputy who pulled over Morales' 1993 Volkswagen Fox for running a stop sign said he found pieces of crack cocaine and other paraphernalia in the car. According to the deputy, Morales said he was in the area to buy powder cocaine for a friend.
The previous November, Morales was arrested by Fort Lauderdale police after he tried to "return'' $345 worth of stolen aviation parts to a local distributor. Instead of giving Morales cash, store employees called police, who were investigating a string of airplane burglaries.
Morales was charged with dealing in stolen property after detectives found that a receipt in his bag belonged to the burglary victim who actually bought the parts. An additional charge of grand theft was tacked on when detectives recovered other stolen items.
Both cases were covered by the three years of probation.
`READY FOR TRIAL'
"We were ready for trial and ready to defend both cases,'' Graņa said. "We made the plea out of convenience. It was a good deal for both sides. My guy didn't go to prison and wasn't going to have a criminal record when it was over.''
Morales officially started working for Golden Airlines on Aug. 10, three days before cutting the no-contest plea deal. Prior to that, he worked 50 unpaid training hours at the charter airline.
Morales, who flew mostly to the Bahamas and Cuba, failed to show up for a flight to Marsh Harbour last Thursday and was fired when he didn't show up for work again on Friday. He was killed the next day while flying the Cessna believed to be owned by Blackhawk principals Gilbert and Erik Chacon.
Blackhawk officials have not returned any telephone calls or been at any of their homes. Daniel Hughes, a former lawyer for Gilbert Chacon, would not answer questions about his client, according to his assistant.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Blackhawk had no service-difficulty reports or enforcement actions involving the downed plane. The FAA had taken four administrative actions against Blackhawk, for technical violations and not following recommended maintenance programs.
Among the four actions was a June 1999 "correction letter'' for failing to follow drug-testing guidelines. The company failed to ensure that certain employees were taking regular, required drug tests. All commercial aviation firms are required to have drug testing programs. Employees who test positive are supposed to be reported to the FAA, Bergen said.
http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/loc al/dade/digdocs/012766.htm
[ 30 August 2001: Message edited by: Airbubba ]