Customs Incident in the US
Hi All,
Yesterday, on arrival in a not so small airport in central US from Europe, I had the bad surprise to be greeted by a pretty upset but otherwise nice Customs Officer.
He was supposed to be off-duty (Thanks God he was available at home !) but he was asked by the FBO at the last minute to come and clear us.
Basically, I had been in touch with the FBO, 20 emails sent, ....but only 2 received (including 1 after we took-off), in which they gave me his number and offered to contact him (they are in the same building......) and I was ASSUMING that they would coordinate our arrival with Customs. But they never did, so the CBP officer basically declared that according to him, this airport was closed for our use....
I managed to clear other delicate issues (like throwing away the thrash in a "special sanitized container handled by a government approved company"...), but he is going to fine me for $5000 + put a note in my so-far immaculate record..
It was my first trip as International PIC, and I had planned a similar trip 2 months ago as SIC in another airport where the FBO very kindly coordinated with Customs our arrival...
I know that I was not perfect on this one, and I believe that the company will take care of the fine, and he also said that I can ask for mitigating circumstances, but I wanted to know if you had been in the same situation and how you got out of it...
Thanks a lot for your advice, as always !!