OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The owner of a plane that police said was carrying cocaine when it made an emergency landing Thursday says the aircraft had run out of fuel.
Tom Fries is the registered owner of the four-seater Piper Cherokee that landed on State Road 76 near Canyon Drive in Oceanside around 1:45 a.m. Thursday.
He told Team 10 an FAA investigator informed him the fuel tanks on the plane, which he leases out to Plus One Flyer, had run dry. He said he didn't have any other information.
“I’m completely out of the loop. I hate to say, but I am just the owner… I wish I knew more,” he told Team 10 investigator Austin Grabish.
Oceanside police said their officers found about one kilogram of suspected cocaine in a bag the plane’s passenger Troy Othneil Smith, 36, had thrown into the brush. They alleged officers found cocaine on Smith as well.
Police arrested Smith, 36, and Gabriel Leon Breit, 21, for the illegal transportation of narcotics. Both are Oceanside residents, and neither were injured during the emergency landing.
Breit, who police said was flying the plane, is listed as a certified flight instructor of Plus One Flyers on LinkedIn.
Fries told Team 10 he’s been leasing out his plane to the club since February.
Flight records show the plane was scheduled to take off from Mesa, Ariz. At 11:09 p.m. Wednesday night.
The FAA said in a statement the pilot of the plane had reported engine issues before making the emergency landing.
Plus One Flyers vice president Dave Eby told Team 10 he couldn’t discuss anything due to the ongoing investigation.
