Authorities raid Security Aviation

Eagle River man arrested, charged with failing to register rocket pod launcher

February 5, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The FBI and several other agencies earlier this week raided Security Aviation's Palmer hangar, the company's hangar at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport and its offices in Anchorage.

Eric Gonzalez, FBI spokesman in Anchorage, said agents executed three search warrants and arrested Robert Kane, an Eagle River man who was charged in federal court with failure to register an explosive device, he said.

The rocket pod launcher he allegedly possessed would have no civilian use, Gonzalez said..

&#8220It's a military device,” he said. &#8220It's illegal.”

Gonzalez said a &#8220host of law enforcement agencies” participated in the raid and that since it is a pending investigation, he could say little else.

The law enforcement agencies involved included the U.S. Marshal, U.S. Immigration, Drug Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Criminal Investigation Division of the Army, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Alaska State Troopers.

The places searched included the Avery & Associates law firm, on C. Street, which is listed in a state database as being owned by attorney Mark J. Avery, who also owns Security Aviation. Avery was once a state prosecutor in San Francisco and an emergency medical technician in Oakland, Calif.

Among the other companies Avery owns are Regional Protective Services, the Medical Training Institute and Regional Paramedic Services.

Craig Wolter, director of operations for Security Aviation, said as near as he can figure out, all the search warrants had to do with the Czechoslovakian-built Albatros L39s the company owns.

&#8220These are experimental, exhibition airplanes,” Wolter said of the two-seater jets. &#8220These are dummy launchers that hang under the wings. They look like something out of a Buck Rogers spaceship. That part is silly.”

Wolter said he didn't want to speculate on what prompted the federal agencies to raid the company, but said it hasn't hurt the company's operations

&#8220We were pretty surprised,” Wolter said. &#8220But our operations, our medevacs and our charters, are going normally. It wasn't a big deal. We just had a bunch of people looking at records. It's real unfortunate, but it's important they do their job. We want them to have full access.”

Security Aviation was considering the purchase of more L39s last fall, but decided the jets shipped up to Palmer could never be made airworthy, according to Wolter.

The owners of the jets confiscated two L39s from the Palmer airport Jan. 24. Two pilots, flying jets that no one from Security had flown, took off from the Palmer airport, en route to Sitka. The following day, one of the pilots died when he crashed the jet near a Ketchikan trailer park. The crash injured six people on the ground.

Security Aviation officials told the Palmer City Council late last year that the company had three helicopters and planned to put together a fleet of 10 Aero Vodochody L39 fighters and up to five helicopters. The helicopters would be used to transport emergency patients, according to information the company gave the council, as well as help with search and rescue and fight wildfires. The jets had been proposed for helping the military with flight simulation in remote sites.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.