Guyanese granted total of US$2.5M bail

– in charter jet overfuelling case

The Guyanese operators of a luxury charter jet company in Florida who have been indicted on conspiracy, fraud and endangerment charges, connected with a crash in 2005, have been granted bail in varying sums.

Michael Brassington was granted US$1.5 million bail in a New Jersey court before US Magistrate Judge Claire C. Cecchi last month. His co-accused Paul Brassington, who is his brother and Francis Vieira were previously granted US$500,000 bail each before Judge Joseph A Greenaway, Jr.

In addition to the Brassingtons and Vieira, three other officials of the now defunct Ft. Lauderdale-based Platinum Jet Management, were charged with overloading their planes with fuel and falsifying records to hide violations from authorities. They have all since pleaded not guilty to the charges.

President, Chief Executive Officer and chief pilot of the company, Michael Brassington, 35,  was named in the 23-count indictment along with his brother, Paul Brassington, 29;  company vice-president; Andre Budhan, 42; a managing member; Joseph Singh, 37, the director of charters; Brien McKenzie, 42, director of maintenance; and Francis Vieira, 59, a pilot.  All counts in the indictment carry a maximum five-year prison sentence, except for endangering the safety of an aircraft – for which Michael Brassington is charged – which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence on conviction.

Michael Brassington was granted bail after his bailors put up as bond, their signed property documents. He had to surrender his travel documents and can make no contact with any of his co-accused, except for his brother.

Other stipulations for him being granted bail were that he had to surrender his pilot’s licence, weapons, firearm identification cards or purchaser’s permits. He is also prohibited from working in airports or the aviation industry. Any job he secures outside of the aviation industry, must be verifiable, stationary and approved.

On February 2, 2005, a Platinum Jet operated flight from Teterboro Airport, New Jersey skidded off the runway and eventually crashed into a warehouse, causing a fire. “The fuel loading was the primary contributing factor in the crash,” US Attorney Ralph Marra was quoted as saying by multiple news sources. “It is astounding – and criminal – that owners and operators of jet aircraft would repeatedly engage in such a dangerous game with passengers and airplanes loaded to the brim with jet fuel. What this indictment alleges is that an anything-goes attitude by the defendants to get their planes in the air and maximise profit without regard to passenger safety or compliance with basic safety regulations.”

In the indictment, Marra accuses the men of “routinely undertaking and concealing dangerous fuelling and weight-distribution practices” over a three-year period, in or about November 2002 to in or about March 2005. Michael Brassington, McKenzie and Vieira are accused of filing paperwork on numerous occasions that fraudulently claimed that the planes being flown by Platinum out of Teterboro were up to 1,000 pounds lighter than their actual weight, in violation of FAA regulations.

It is alleged that Michael Brassington would instruct the company’s pilots to maximise charter profits by “tankering” fuel, involving loading extra fuel on the aircraft at locations where Platinum Jet had contracts for comparatively cheap fuel prices, like Teterboro Airport. The men would falsify FAA-required weight-and-balance graphs to conceal the weight configuration. Pilots were also instructed to do the same. Such “tankering,” according to the indictment, caused the aircraft to exceed their maximum allowable take-off and landing weights and forward Centre of Gravity (COG) limits, thereby endangering the safety of the aircraft during takeoff, flight and landing.

Additionally, the men are accused of having solicited charter flight customers for Platinum Jet using charter brokers, misrepresenting that it was acting in compliance with safety standards. In this regard, they said that the company’s on-demand commercial flights were actually non-commercial flights, which it was not certified to fly. During the period listed in the indictment, they are reported to have flown 85 such flights for more than US$1 million in compensation. They are also accused of using unqualified pilots who failed to meet the FAA requirements and the indictment alleges that the captain of the ill-fated 2005 Teterboro flight was not certified to fly the commercial flights. He was not, however, charged.

The case comes up again on May 12.