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Joseph Singh, the director of charters for Platinum Jet, shared responsibility for endangering the safety of the aircraft through a conspiracy to defraud customers, brokers — and the FAA itself — during a plea hearing in Newark.
Singh, who held the post from November 2003 to February 2005, admitted that he directed pilots to fly commercial charters — bearing celebrities such as Beyonce Knowles, Jay Z, and Snoop Dogg — even though Platinum Jet didn’t have the necessary licenses to do so.
Singh admitted to prosecutors that he did this with the full knowledge of company owners Michael Brassington and Paul Brassington, as well as other principles in the company.
All of them knew they were defrauding charter customers, brokers, and the FAA, he said, under oath.
Singh admitted assigning John Kimberling to pilot several flights, including one from Connecticut to West Palm Beach, even though the FAA hadn’t qualified him to fly commercially.
Kimberling was the pilot in February 2005, when the ill-fated Teterboro plane taxied onto the tarmac and then headed north along the runway, picking up speed as it went.
As it hit 135 knots, Kimberling inexplicably chose to abort the takeoff. By that point, however, the speed had reached 160 knots and there was no slowing the aircraft down.
The twinjet blew through an airport fence and careened across the busy highway, hitting two people in a car. Then it smashed into a clothing factory warehouse and burst into flames.
Five of the eight passengers along with a cabin aide got out with little more than scraches. The pilot, another passenger and the two people in the car were taken to nearby hospitals.
Federal investigators soon found that Platinum had violated regulations on nearly 50 passenger-carrying flights.
Just the day before, FAA agents discovered, Platinum had listed the fuel weight on a flight from Las Vegas to Teterboro at 13,000 pounds when it was actually 14,500 pounds.
“Platinum thereby operated the aircraft in a careless or reckless manner,” the FAA said.
The violations quickly mounted.
Perhaps the most dangerous of all, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott McBride, is Platinum Jet employed a “dangerous and fraudulent” method known as “tankering,” which he said contributed to the Teterboro crash by shifting the aircraft’s center of gravity too far forward.
“Tankering” is an illegal way of cutting costs by taking advantage of less expensive fuel contracts, then overfueling the tanks to the extent that the center of gravity moves too far forward.
The government determined that Platinum Jet flew more than two dozen commercial flights this way and then lied about it on FAA documents.
In the case of the Teterboro crash, the FAA said: “Platinum Jet failed to prepare, before takeoff, accurate load manifests containing required information concerning loading of the aircraft.”
“The fuel loading was the primary contributing factor in the crash,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr.
“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,” he said.
Five others charged in the case have either pleaded out or are awaiting their respective turns in court, on charges ranging from conspiracy to making false statements.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based charter operator also has been fined more than $1.86 million.
A charging indictment produced by a grand jury in Newark accused Singh and the others with:
• Operating Platinum as an on-demand commercial jet charter company from November 2002 until November 2003 without the necessary certification;
• Lying on documents faxed to charter brokers about Platinum Jet’s illegal regulatory and safety status;
• Sharing certification documents, an illegal practice known as “piggybacking”;
• Employing pilots who didn’t have FAA-required amounts of rest or authorization to fly chartered flights.
• Falsely indicating that the charters were private, non-profit flights.
The single conspiracy count and 21 false statement counts each carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Unlike in the state system, the federal government doesn’t have parole.
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