Drug Charges Follow Highway Landing
Cherokee 235 was rented out in a leaseback deal with a San Diego flying club.
As we've pointed out before in airplane mishap coverage, sometimes the line between good and bad luck is razor thin. Never was that more true than for the pilot and passenger aboard a Cherokee 235 who walked away from a highway landing and into the arms of local law enforcement last Thursday. The duo put down on Highway 76 north of San Diego with engine trouble. Both plane and people were undamaged, but the incident prompted the usual response from police, fire and ambulance and when the cops arrived one of the occupants was spotted throwing a backpack into the bushes, as reported by the Oceanside Police.
Shortly after the mishap, which blocked a lane of the highway for a time, Oceanside Police announced they'd found a "large quantity of narcotics" in the backpack. There were enough drugs (about a kilo of cocaine) found to send the two occupants straight to jail and prompt an FBI investigation. The FAA is also looking into it.
The aircraft was a rental. It's registered to Leadturn LLC, a San Diego company whose owners are former military combat drone pilots now providing training and developing software for new military drone pilots. A company spokesman told local media the plane is rented out through a flying club called Plus One Flyers. The plane is advertised on Plus One's website as a "great cross country bird with excellent useful load" of 1224 pounds. Plus One specializes in leaseback deals with private owners.
