NEW TACK: Company tries to rebuild image as it awaits trial on weapons charges.
Small tug trucks pulled six fighter jets across a runway at Anchorage's international airport Friday and back to the hangar area of their owner, embattled air charter and medevac company Security Aviation Inc.
It was a media event, with television and newspaper crews invited to record the jets' return. Security Aviation is trying to reshape a public image that's been damaged by federal weapons charges, government suspicions of financial fraud, and assertions that company executives have been involved in shadowy international operations.
The company and principal Rob Kane were indicted Feb. 22 on charges of illegally possessing and transporting rocket launchers.
Defense lawyers and company leaders say the business, including the tiny private air force the company assembled, is legitimate. Security Aviation hoped to win training and operational contracts with the U.S. Air Force, the Navy, foreign governments and even the United Nations. And it still does, once the criminal case is resolved, said Joe Griffith, a former fighter wing commander at Elmendorf Air Force Base who works as a $60-an-hour consultant to Security Aviation.
The rocket launchers, they say, were just for show, and the company never had any actual rockets.
"The word needs to get out," Griffith said. He said he urged the company to publicize the military venture it started last summer so people wouldn't be suspicious. Now, with the weapons trial less than a month away, Security Aviation is inviting reporters into its hangars and even the jet cockpits. It also has hired a public relations firm, Porcaro Communications.
"I think we've seen the light of day dawn. We're going to go back and mend fences," said Griffith, also former chief executive officer of Chugach Electric Association.
It was around 9 a.m. when the first group of three jets, all with glossy camouflage paint jobs, rolled from a Federal Aviation Administration hangar at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to Security's property on the airport's south side.
Employees considered the return a sign the company would survive.
"Isn't that neat!" exclaimed one, a flight attendant who took out her own small camera to record the moment.
"There's a bald eagle flying right over it," said senior vice president David Bean. "That's got to be a good omen."
One jet had special markings, with "Cmdr. R.F. Kane" painted on the fuselage outside the rear pilot seat and "Chief C. Wolter" outside the front seat. Wolter, who had been Security's director of operations, is no longer employed there. By early afternoon, his name had been wiped away.
A federal judge this week approved returning six of the eight jets seized in Feb. 2 raids. The U.S. Attorney's Office had started forfeiture proceedings against all eight, but asked to drop six of the jets from its case without stating why. Defense lawyers said it was because those six clearly didn't have functional weapons systems. Whether the others did is in dispute, as is the operability of the rocket launchers. The government still is seeking forfeiture of the remaining two jets.
As the U.S. Marshals Service returned the jets, Security Aviation owner Mark Avery, Kane and their lawyers were at the defense table in a federal courtroom downtown, learning their trial date. U.S. District Judge John Sedwick ordered the trial of Kane and Security Aviation to begin May 15, and planned on it taking about two weeks.
Assistant U.S. attorney Steve Skrocki told the judge he planned to seek a replacement indictment of Kane and Security Aviation when the federal grand jury meets next week, but said it would contain only minor revisions.
The jets will need to be carefully inspected down to every nut and bolt before they can be flown again, Griffith said. He hopes to have a couple on the ground at the Alaska Airmen's Association show in May at the FedEx hangar and maybe show them off again in the summer at Elmendorf's popular air show.
After the trial, the company will again try to pitch its plan to serve as an opposition force and as a target during aerial war games. It also has prepared a proposal to help the United Nations improve its air operations, and to train pilots in the Philippines, he said.
Daily News reporter Lisa Demer can be reached at ldemer@adn.com and 257-4390. Reporter Richard Mauer can be reached at rmauer@adn.com and 257-4345.
