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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 25, 2001 CRYSTAL RIVER -- The small plane was off course and headed toward the Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant. All of a sudden, it had company. Moments after the U.S. Air Force noticed the Piper Arrow meandering around the Gulf of Mexico, two F-16s were sent streaking to its side. "Land or you will be forced to land," the plane's pilot was told.
Inside, they did not find terrorists. They did, however, find a pilot, a passenger and 65 pounds of marijuana. "Flying drugs would probably be a bad idea right about now," said Crystal River City Manager Phil Lilly, adding that the plane was the talk of City Hall on Wednesday afternoon. Pilot Vernon Williams, 53, and passenger Brian Hagen, 26, both of Melbourne, were arrested on a count of drug trafficking and were sent to the Citrus County jail. Ronda Hemminger Evan, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said the men told detectives they were flying from Pensacola to Louisiana. Hagen said they planned to hit the casinos; Williams said they were going sky-diving. How they wandered over Crystal River, a coastal community off U.S. 19, isn't known. Evan said Federal Aviation Administration officials contacted the Air Force around 6 p.m. Tuesday after the Piper deviated from its flight plan. It's not unusual for the FAA to contact the Air Force if a plane appears to be suspicious or is clearly off course, said Christopher White, an FAA spokesman. He said he couldn't discuss the Crystal River incident because it was being handled by the military.
"In the times we're living in now, the best course of action seemed to be to get the plane out of the sky, then ask questions," she said. "We never had any idea there were going to be drugs in the plane," she said. A spokeswoman for North American Aerospace Defense Command said she couldn't comment because of security concerns. Officials at the nuclear plant didn't learn of the errant plane until a deputy stationed at the front gate heard a transmission over his radio, said Mac Harris, a spokesman for Florida Power. "There was never an official notification sent to us because there was not a threat to the plant," Harris said. Once the plane landed in Crystal River, Williams and Hagen were forced to get down on the ground by gun-wielding deputies. Williams gave them permission to search the Piper. After finding a loaded .40-caliber Glock handgun in Williams' bag and three large shrink-wrapped bags of marijuana, a deputy was sent to get a search warrant from a judge to search the rest of the plane, according to an arrest report. Lodged in the back seat were four duffel bags stuffed with 65 pounds of marijuana, a stash with a street value of $65,000, said Evan. "That's a big bust for Citrus County," she said. Hagen, the passenger, has a history of drug arrests, according to records kept by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement: He was charged by the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office with possession of marijuana and intent to sell dangerous drugs in December 1998. He pleaded no contest to the possession charge, and the second count was dropped. St. Lucie deputies arrested Hagen twice again this year. In September, he was charged with possession of narcotics and in October he was charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. The FDLE records also show Williams was arrested in 1992 by St. Lucie authorities for misdemeanor battery. By Wednesday afternoon, Williams paid the necessary 10 percent of his $250,000 bail and was released from the jail. Hagen was still being held as of late Wednesday. Calls to both of their houses went unreturned. Williams' neighbor, Bob Tyner, said he didn't know the man well but thought he was involved in his church. Williams told authorities he recently sold the 1971 Piper Arrow PA28 R200 to a flight training school. If so, the plane will be returned to its owner, Evan said. Otherwise it will become the property of the Sheriff's Office.
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