The FAA is being urged to exert its authority to help a Minnesota pilot get his airplane back. As we reported earlier, Darrin Smedsmo was flying his Stinson 108 over the Red Lake Indian Reservation in his home state when the engine quit. He put the plane down on a road and it was immediately confiscated by the tribe, citing a 1978 tribal law that claimed jurisdiction over airspace below 20,000 feet over the reservation. Despite appearances at the tribal court and discussions with tribe officials, the plane remains impounded. At last report, the tube and fabric vintage taildragger was being stored outside, and Minnesota is experiencing one of the roughest starts to winter in recent memory. The Minnesota Pilots Association said AOPA has been supportive in the legal fight but the FAA has been curiously absent.
The group held a meeting earlier this week and among its actions was to “implore the FAA to step up to the plate and clarify the fact that only the FAA has jurisdiction of the airspace above the United States of America. At this point in time the FAA has not been willing to do so.” Meanwhile, the confiscation of the Stinson seems to have emboldened the tribal council and it’s now asking its members to identify overflying aircraft on flight tracking websites so it can send the owners “citations” for breaking the tribal law. The law was created to try to block establishment of a military training corridor through the reservation. Smedsmo’s landing apparently revived its use by the tribal council. The FAA is usually quick to quash this kind of enforcement by local authorities. The FAA did not immediately respond to AvBrief’s request for comment.
The illustration indicates the aircraft landed on the highway outside the reservation, but it apparently may have flown through “tribal airspace”. The article reads “confiscated by the tribe, citing a 1978 tribal law that claimed jurisdiction over airspace below 20,000 feet over the reservation“.
While it is possible that both of these points are true, that would mean that simply flying through “tribal airspace” may subject an aircraft to capture and impoundment. If one tribe can extract compensation for use of “their airspace”, there are many others eager to join in.
The FAA and DOJ need to step up and enforce their authority before this gets out of hand.
I’m not sure how much we can trust that map. The airplane symbol in the upper right is indeed outside of the reservation, but that probably represents the grass airstrip just south of Waskish, MN. But if he landed on County Road 1, where the large red dot denotes the town of Red Lake on the south shore of Lower Red Lake, he was definitely inside the reservation.
Whether that gives them the right to confiscate the plane is a whole ‘nother matter. What do you suppose would happen if he had landed on the golf course at Mar-a-Lago?
To my knowledge the tribes have no authority outside the reservation. Send me a citation for overflight, I’ll simply ignore it.
violate another country’s airspace see how it pans out… that’s what happened here. Guy thought he was above the law of another nation. in his first comment on a local news report, he claimed to “have flown over this air space dozens of times and never had any issue.” So his defense to breaking their law was “so what I’ve done it tons of times” You and him sound maybe a little too entitled. Plan for flight paths, stay out of air space you’re not allowed in… doesn’t sound too hard.