At the heart of the story of Australia's current experience with the latest American-registered drug plane busted overseas is that this is not just another American "mystery plane." It's a "stealth" mystery plane. Another American “mystery plane” was busted last week, this time in Australia, at the Illawarra regional airport in the seaside city of Wollongong, an hour south of Sydney. Police seized a cache of 35 kilos of illegal drugs found on an American-registered Swearingen Merlin twin–engine turbo-prop during an initial search, sources told ABC Australia, and said one local man, already known to police, had been arrested. The drug seized went unspecified, but speculation focused on heroin. The news sent local media in Australia into a three-day tizzy. One newspaper published seventeen separate photographs showing police swarming over the aircraft from a variety of different angles, to no particular effect. mystery “Mystery plane raided: Pilot flew across Pacific, left it in Philippines” reported ABC Australia. “Mystery surrounds THREE DAY police ‘drug’ raid on 43-year-old light plane” headlined London’s Daily Mail. America's 'mystery planes' are the Foo fighters of the 21st Century Foo fightersThe notion of life as a series of “mysteries” which may never be solved may be replacing explanations citing “conspiracy” as the default rationale for unexplained events. In American general aviation, examples seem to be everywhere: “Crash Jet Had Air of Mystery,” headlined as New York Post story on an American-registered Gulfstream II luxury jet from St Petersburg caught carrying four tons of cocaine in the Yucatan in 2007. “How the U.S.-registered Gulfstream ended up in the hands of suspected drug traffickers,” reported the AP, covering the same story, “remains a mystery.” America's “mystery planes” are the “Foo Fighters” of the 21st Century. Investigating them is like chasing balls of light. Still, it may be possible to answer a few of the many unanswered questions on the U.S. side of the current imbroglio in Australia. The so-far shadowy American owners of the Swearingen Merlin (N224HR), who began the whole chain of events when they exported the plane to Australia, should not be sleeping comfortably at night. But, of course, as we all know, they are.http://www.madcowprod.com/2014/07/15/another-american-mystery-plane-busted/
