From Wayne Madsen Report:
July 8-9, 2014 -- New airline flying thousands of Central American children around U.S.
Emerging
almost out of no where, a new charter airline, Orange Air LLC, has
become one of the most active airlines in the American southwest. Orange
Air's plane, exactly one, with its stylized letter "O" is now almost as
familiar a sight at San Antonio International Airport and Phoenix Sky
Harbor International Airport as the more numerous Southwest Airlines
aircraft.
Orange Air, with almost no corporate history, has
received a contract from the Department of Homeland Security's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch to ferry around the
southwest thousands of illegal immigrant children largely from Honduras,
Guatemala, and to a lesser extent, El Salvador, who have streamed
across the U.S.-Mexican border based on a U.S. law that states they may
remain in the U.S. as long as they hail from a non-contiguous country.
To
read Orange Air's website, one could be a bit confused about the sudden
appearance of the firm's single charter plane at airports throughout
the southwest. Its website claims that the company, based at Sanford
International Airport in Florida, has "supplied diverse aviation
services and aircraft to various US government agencies, the United
Nations, foreign governments, Fortune 100 companies, U.S. government
officials, foreign dignitaries, royal families, prominent sports
figures, and notable entertainers." And now, if one were to believe the
firm's website, Orange's planes, which have flown around kings and
princesses and diplomats and wealthy CEOs is now transporting the most
poorest of the poor young refugees from Central America. WMR has learned
that Orange largely existed only on paper before it received the
lucrative DHS/ICE contract. It was so under-capitalized, it initially
expected its pilots to work for "IOUs" before its federal government
cash flow spigot was turned on.
Relative newcomer Orange Air
is rumored by aviation industry insiders as having CIA connections. The
firm's executives have remained tight-lipped with the media about its
operations.
One has to wonder how many princes and star
quarterbacks Orange has flown since the firm's website states the
airline's first "revenue flight" was on June 10, 2014. Orange received
its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification on June 3, 2014.
It was during June that children from Central America first began
crossing into the United States in massive numbers.
Orange's
website, although it claims to have flown celebrities and royalty, has a
strange way of attracting customers. Orange's website stresses: "We are
a low cost airline offering flights of fancy and cruises through
previously uncharted airwaves. We are not looking toward making it
comfortable for you as your flight is your own, but we will provide you
with everything that you may need for a complete journey. You are not
expected to want to return, consequently we do not offer 2-way tickets
nor do we ever fly to the same destination twice."
Orange fleet
of one airplane consists of a 32-year old MD-82 aircraft (N918AV).
Although the airline is based at Sanford airport, its general counsel is
located in Bethesda, Maryland. The firm was incorporated in Delaware.
Some of Orange's principals previously worked for Falcon Air Express, a
Miami-based charter company with a secondary hub in Mesa, Arizona that
offers service to Curacao under the name Dutch Antilles Express, and
which is contracted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Refugee
children who disembark from the Orange aircraft at San Antonio are
transported in prison buses to the San Antonio-Lackland Joint Base.
Orange Air's plane has been known to make as many as six trips in a
single day. The aircraft's stops have included McAllen, El Paso,
Brownsville, and Houston [George Bush International], Texas; Lawton-Fort
Sill, Oklahoma; Alexandria-Fort Polk, Louisiana; San Diego, California;
and Tucson, Phoenix, and Mesa, Arizona.