PLYMOUTH, MA, 17 December 2010: Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association is currently reviewing its members? willingness to continue offering air freight service to the Dominican Republic, in view of the nearly two-week-long imprisonment of two pilots employed by an member airline.
Dominican officials have stated that the pilots are innocent regarding drugs that were found hidden under the floor of a cargo airplane the crew was preparing to fly out of the Dominican Republic on a contract flight for a major U.S. air freight forwarder. However, little progress has been made with Dominican authorities, notwithstanding efforts of their employer, the U.S. State Department, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, and U.S. Congressman Tom Petri ? and the two pilots are still in a Dominican prison, having been refused bail pending a hearing that has already been rescheduled several times.
?In view of these developments, our member airlines are concerned about the safety of their employees on flights to the Dominican Republic,? said RACCA President Stan Bernstein. ?Dominican officials responsible for the drug bust have stated that the pilots are innocent, but two weeks later they?re still in jail. The question for RACCA?s member airlines now becomes, does the benefit of providing air cargo service to the Dominican Republic justify the risk of another event like this??
The two pilots, Kevin Kuranz of Wisconsin and Christopher Schmidt of Tennessee, are employees of Air Cargo Carriers and were flying a Shorts SD-3-30 ? Kuranz on his first trip to the Dominican Republic ? when the airplane was seized and the crew detained. It is reported that 18 Dominican military and government officials have been arrested in the course of the associated investigation.
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For further details contact Stan Bernstein at the telephone number or Email address below.
60 Clifford Road, Plymouth, MA 02360 ? 508 747 1430 ?
RACCAemail@aol.com
