Trump Pilot Latest Common Man
To Have Uncommon Impact On The Future
The unidentified pilot who was at the controls of the Dassault Falcon 900 jet when one of its engines failed over the Gulf of Mexico has taken his place among those whose actions have changed the course of history.
Passengers on the flight included ex-president trump, along with an entourage of Secret Service agents, support staffers and some advisers. The flight had taken off from New Orleans where trump had met with top GOP donors at the posh Four Seasons Hotel, and was headed to trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
The flight was just 75 miles from New Orleans Lakefront Airport, at an altitude of about 28,000 feet, before it had to turn around, and make an emergency landing at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. A different ending and one of the most divisive and damaging demagogues in American history might be gone. But he is not gone, because of an unidentified pilot who will take his place among others whose action or inaction influenced or ended the lives of American presidents and changed history, including Richard Pavlick, Charles J. Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, John Flammang Schrank, John Warnock Hinckley Jr., Richard Lawrence, Julius Bergerson, Severino Di Giovanni, Giuseppe Zangara, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Arthur Bremer, Samuel Byck, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Sara Jane Moore, Raymond Lee Harvey, Ronald Gene Barbour, Frank Eugene Corder, Francisco Martin Duran, Cesar Sayoc, Ronald Gene Barbour, Vladimir Arutyunian, Kody Brittingham, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, Michael Burnett, Mitchell Kusick and Gregory Lee Leingang.
The plane belonged to an unidentified donor who loaned it to Trump for the evening. Trump’s personal Boeing 757 has been sitting unused at an Orange County, N.Y., airport, unable to be flown. The full-size passenger airliner, which bears Trump’s name across the side in large block letters, has fallen into disrepair. One engine is shrink-wrapped and the other is missing parts, according to CNN.
After the damaged, trump plane returned to New Orleans, Trump advisers arranged for another plane, which was brought to the airport. The second plane is owned by billionaire, Craig Estey, a GOP donor and founder of Nevada Restaurant Services. Estey and his wife, Patricia, are major conservative donors and gave $600,000 to Trump Victory, the former president’s failed, reelection drive. Craig Estey is founder of Nevada Restaurant Services, which owns more than 200 tavern-casinos that operate in several Western states. The company’s Dotty’s slot parlors feature delis and salad bars in addition to slot machines.
Trump would be well advised to stay away from Dassault Falcons as the planes have had their share of problems.
On Feb. 13, 2021 a Dassault Falcon 900EX, N823RC (formerly N718AK) was substantially damaged in an accident in San Diego, Cali. The two pilots, one additional crew member and two passengers were not injured. Reportedly, the flight crew was unable to raise the nose of the airplane at rotation speed and the crew aborted the takeoff; however, the plane overran the end of the runway and came to rest around 560 feet beyond the departure end of the runway.
On Sept. 14, 1999, a Falcon 900B operating for the Greek Government by Olympic Airways, was descending to land at Bucharest, Romania, when the autopilot disengaged, causing several pilot-induced oscillations. The impact of unfastened passengers with the cabin and aircraft furniture resulted in fatal injuries to seven passengers, serious injuries to two and minor to another two. Among the victims was Giannos Kranidiotis, then deputy foreign minister for Greece.
On Nov. 28, 2008, a Dassault Falcon 900 was on its way from Athens-Elefterios Venizelos Airport in Greece to Rome with three passengers and three crew members on board. While at cruising level over the Adriatic Sea, the crew smelled burning, declared an emergency and diverted to Brindisi-Papola Casale Airport. After landing on runway 23, the aircraft skidded, veered off runway and lost its right main gear before coming to rest. Three occupants were evacuated to a local hospital with minor injuries while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. It was brand new and had completed only 100 flying hours.
Apparently trump has had enough of the Dassault Falcon as he has asked supporters to donate so he can buy a new “Trump Force One.” Trump, through his Save America PAC, sent his supporters an email titled “Update Trump Force One” that said “my team is building a BRAND NEW Trump Force One.”
He said that the construction of the plane has been under wraps and “I can’t wait to unveil it for everyone to see.”
The fundraising email said he had “a very important update on his plane” and asked potential donors if they remember how the former president used to travel across the U.S. in his own “Trump Force One” before he became “the greatest President of all time.”
The email included a GIF of a plane taking off with a poll giving donors “yes” or “no” options if they wanted to see his new plane. The poll links to a donation page that asks supporters to “Contribute ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY to send your response to President Trump!”
The unidentified pilot will undoubtedly fade from public view as have others who succeeded or failed in changing the course of history. Here is a bit about some of those others who have been forgotten in the fog of history.
Richard Pavlick was a 73-year-old retired postal worker from New Hampshire who hated President John F. Kennedy because he thought Kennedy had bought his way into the White House and “wanted to teach the United States [that] the presidency is not for sale.” Pavlick planned on rigging his car with dynamite and driving into JFK’s limo. The would-be assassin had the detonator in his hand on Dec. 11, 1960, when Kennedy left his Palm Beach, Fla., home, for Sunday Mass, but he backed away because Jackie Kennedy and their two kids were also riding along and Pavlick didn’t want to kill the whole family. A few days later, Pavlick was arrested and was later deemed mentally ill and spent the next few years in an institution, before he eventually was released in 1966, and died in 1975.
Charles J. Guiteau was an American writer and lawyer who assassinated President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881. Guiteau believed that he had played a major role in Garfield’s election victory and was angry after he was turned away for a consulship. Guiteau shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. Garfield died two months later from infections related to the wounds. In January 1882, Guiteau was sentenced to death for the crime, and was hanged five months later.
Leon Czolgosz was an American steelworker and anarchist who shot and killed President William McKinley, on Sept. 6, 1901, in Buffalo, N.Y. McKinley died eight days later after his wound became infected. Caught in the act, Czolgosz was convicted and executed seven weeks later.
John Flammang Schrank, a Bavarian-born saloon keeper, shot and wounded former President Theodore Roosevelt who was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wis., to be elected in 1912 as a member of the Progressive Party. Schrank shot Roosevelt once in the chest but the former president’s life was spared when the bullet struck the 50-page text of Roosevelt’s campaign speech titled “Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual”, folded over twice in his breast pocket, and a metal glasses case. Schrank was immediately disarmed and captured. Schrank claimed at his trial that William McKinley had visited him in a dream and told him to avenge his assassination by killing Roosevelt. Schrank was found legally insane and was institutionalized until his death in 1943.
John Warnock Hinckley Jr., child of a wealthy family in Ardmore, Okla., was obsessed with actor Jodie Foster after watching her in the film, “Taxi Driver.” He sent Foster love letters and romantic poems, and repeatedly called and left her messages, to no avail. So, to capture her attention, Hinkley considered assassination. He trailed President Jimmy Carter but was arrested in Tennessee on a firearms charge. He changed his target and on March 30, 1981, Hinkley fired six times at President Ronald Reagan who was leaving a Washington, D.C. hotel after a political address. Reagan was seriously wounded as were police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and press secretary James Brady. At his 1982 trial, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Thirty-four years later, on July 27, 2016, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley could be released from St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital as he was no longer considered a threat to himself or others.
House painter Richard Lawrence attempted to kill President Andrew Jackson on Jan. 30, 1835, outside of the Capitol, but his two pistols misfired and he was caught and beaten by Jackson with his presidential cane. Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to a mental institution until his death in 1861.
President-elect Herbert Hoover was on a good will tour of Central and South American when he was targeted for assassination on Nov. 19, 1928, by a group of Argentine anarchists, led by Italian-born Severino DiGiovanni. They planned to blow up Hoover’s train but the plot was thwarted and Hoover was not harmed.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped unscathed just 17 days before his first inauguration, when Guiseppe Zangara, an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen, fired five shots at Roosevelt at an event in Miami, Fla. Zangara missed the president-elect, but mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Zangara pleaded guilty to the murder and was executed in the electric chair on March 20, 1933.
Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists, attempted to kill President Harry Truman at the Blair House on Nov. 1, 1950. In the attack, Torresola wounded White House Policeman Leslie Coffelt, who killed the attacker with a shot to the head. Collazo wounded another officer, and survived with serious injuries. Truman was not harmed and he commuted Collazo’s death sentence after conviction in a federal trial to life in prison. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted it to time served.
Arthur Bremer, a busboy at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, planned to kill President Richard Nixon on April 13, 1972, but was put off by strong security. A few weeks later, Bremer shot and seriously injured Alabama Governor George Wallace, who was paralyzed until his death in 1998. Bremer served 35 years in prison for the shooting of Wallace. Bremer was released from prison on Nov. 9, 2007, at the age of 57, having served 35 years of his original sentence. His probation ends in 2025.
Samuel Byck, an Army veteran who suffered from severe depression, planned to kill Nixon on Feb. 22, 1974, by crashing a commercial airliner into the White House. He hijacked a DC-9 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport after killing a Maryland Aviation Administration police officer and shooting two pilots. Officer Charles “Butch” Troyer shot and wounded Byck through the plane’s door window. Byck later shot and killed himself.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, tried to kill President Gerald Ford on Sept. 5, 1975. Her gun failed to fire and she was quickly restrained, was sentenced to life in prison, but was released from custody on Aug. 14, 2009.
Seventeen days later, Sara Jane Moore fired a revolved at Ford but a bystander grabbed her arm and the bullet missed the president. Moore was convicted and sentenced to prison for life. She was paroled from a federal prison on Dec. 31, 2007, after serving more than 30 years. Moore’s friends said that she became radicalized and had an obsession with Patricia Hearst after the heiress was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).
Raymond Lee Harvey, no relation to Lee Harvey Oswald, was an Ohio-born unemployed American drifter who was arrested on May 5,1979, after the Secret Service found he was carrying a starter pistol with blank rounds, minutes before President Jimmy Carter was to give a speech at the Civic Center Mall in Los Angeles. Charges were ultimately dismissed for a lack of evidence.
Francisco Martin Duran stood behind a fence overlooking the North Lawn of the White House on Oct. 29, 1994, and fired at least 29 shots from his rifle at the White House, mistakenly thinking that President Bill Clinton was among the men in dark suits standing there. Clinton was inside the White House at the time. Duran was convicted of attempting to assassinate Clinton and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Florida resident Cesar Sayoc, a fanatical trump supporter, was captured two days after he had mailed a package containing a pipe bomb to the Clinton home in Chappagua, N.Y. The bomb was seized before arriving at the Clinton home. The bomb was one of 16 mailed to 13 other Democratic leaders in the same week, including former president Barack Obama. Sayoc was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison.
Truck driver and Army veteran Frank Eugene Corder stole a Cessna 150 on Sept. 11, 1994, and crashed the stolen aircraft onto the South Lawn of the White House early on Sept. 12, 1994. While attempting to land the plane, Corder was killed, and was the sole casualty.
While President George W. Bush was giving a speech in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 10, 2005, Vladimir Arutyunian, a Georgian citizen and ethnic Armenian, threw a live Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade toward the podium. The grenade had its pin pulled, but did not explode because a red tartan handkerchief was wrapped tightly around it, preventing the safety lever from detaching. After escaping that day, Arutyunian was arrested in July 2005 but not before killing an Interior Ministry agent. He was convicted in January 2006 and given a life sentence.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a conspiracist with fringe religious viewpoints, fired rounds from a semi-automatic rifle into the White House in Nov. 2011, in an attempt to kill President Barack Obama. There were no injuries but at least seven bullets hit the second floor. Obama and Michelle Obama were not home but the couple’s child, Sasha, and Michelle’s mother were at the White House. Ortega-Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
Gregory Lee Leingang planned to kill trump on Sept. 6, 2017, in Mandan, S.D., by driving a forklift into the presidential motorcade and overturning the presidential limousine. He stole the forklift from an oil refinery but the forklift jammed and Leingang ran to avoid arrest. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.