AOPA warns Minnesota tribe's aircraft seizure risks safety
Presses federal officials to help resolve ongoing dispute
AOPA sent a second letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, urging them to step in after an AOPA member’s airplane was seized following an emergency landing on a state highway in the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota on October 15.
The pilot, Darrin Smedsmo, was flying his Stinson 108 over Lower Red Lake en route from Roseau, Minnesota, to Bemidji, Minnesota, when his engine suffered a catastrophic failure. As a result, he landed safely on state Highway 89, along the western edge of the lake.
In its first letter to Burgum and Duffy in December, AOPA urged their agencies to intervene, and pointed out that this “assertion raises serious concerns, as regulation of navigable airspace is a matter of exclusive federal authority and administered by the Federal Aviation Administration.”
In the March 12 letter, AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon reiterated that the federal government has “'exclusive sovereignty'” over airspace, and that regulations require “the pilot in command to take whatever action is necessary to protect life and property.”
Coon said the case has wider implications beyond seeking the return of Smedsmo’s airplane.
“The current situation involving Red Lake Nation raises significant concern within the general aviation community. If an emergency landing made in the interest of safety can be treated as trespassing and result in confiscation of an aircraft and substantial penalties, it creates uncertainty for pilots who may be forced by circumstances beyond their control to land wherever safety requires,” wrote Coon.
In a recent interview, Smedsmo said he received a settlement offer for more than $7,000—which Coon highlighted—to cover the towing fee and a donation to the Red Lake Nation Boys and Girls Club, which Smedsmo said “wasn’t acceptable.”
“They obviously don’t have anything against me and so they’re just putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, hoping it’ll go away and I’m not planning on going anywhere,” added Smedsmo.
“The continued impoundment of an aircraft following a legitimate emergency landing raises serious questions about how federal aviation law and safety protections are being applied in this situation,” said Coon.
Without a resolution, Coon added that AOPA may pursue a “legislative remedy to clarify and reaffirm the protections afforded to pilots who are compelled to make emergency landings in the interest of safety.”
