This story has taken an interesting twist...
Found it here:
http://www.nbc6.net/news/9163049/detail.html
Hero Pilot Indicted
Pilot Crash-Landed Plane On Street
POSTED: 6:08 pm EDT May 4, 2006
UPDATED: 10:32 am EDT May 5, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The pilot who drew praise for his skill in crash-landing a vintage airplane on a residential Fort Lauderdale street last year without causing any deaths now faces federal charges of illegally flying commercial cargo to the Bahamas, prosecutors said Thursday.
A 20-count grand jury indictment charges Charles A. Riggs, 63, with operating a plane in air commerce illegally and failing to file a customs declaration for the load of granite he was carrying to the Bahamas when his World War II-era DC-3 went down on June 13, 2005.
Miami U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the investigation grew out of that crash and is being expanded to focus on other so-called "bandit" companies that illegally fly passengers and cargo out of South Florida airports without Federal Aviation Administration permission.
"FAA regulations exist to protect the flying public," Acosta said. "For unregulated bandit flight operators, however, profits often take precedence over safety."
Riggs pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale and is free on $100,000 bail. His attorney, Chris Mancini, said the charges -- a misdemeanor and 19 civil counts -- had nothing to do with the crash itself.
"It has no flight safety implications whatsoever. The guy still, I think, is a hero for navigating that plane as safely as he did," Mancini said.
Doctors and rescue workers credited Riggs, a U.S. helicopter pilot in Vietnam, with saving dozens of lives by managing to crash-land the DC-3 plane without hitting buildings or homes in a heavily populated area after it developed engine trouble shortly after takeoff. Riggs and two other men aboard the plane were injured, but not seriously.
Prosecutors, however, said that Riggs and his company, Air Pony Express Inc., did not have Federal Aviation Administration authorization to use that plane to carry cargo to the Bahamas. Yet it was used on numerous occasions to fly to Nassau, Grand Bahama, Abaco and Treasure Cay in spring and summer 2005, according to the indictment.
The most serious charge against Riggs alleges that he intentionally failed to file a U.S. Customs form required for any for-profit cargo operations for the flight on June 13, 2005, that was headed for Abaco but wound up on the Fort Lauderdale street.
Mancini said that Riggs had intended to fly first to an airport in Palm Beach County, obtain the Customs clearance there and then head for the Bahamas. He said Riggs has not been sanctioned by the Federal Aviation Administration or any other regulatory entity because of his flights or the crash.
"They'll never prove that he intended to violate the law in any way," Mancini said.
If convicted, Riggs faces a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison on the Customs form count and $5,000 in fines for each of the 19 counts of operating the aircraft illegally.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. .