Feds seize F-14 cockpit from DeLand Air Museum

[Warbirdnerd]

NCIS confiscates jet cockpit from DeLand museum

By BOB KOSLOW
Staff Writer

DELAND -- Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service raided the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum earlier this week.

No museum board members were at the museum when the agents arrived on Tuesday, President Pete Lowenstein said, but agents left a property receipt for taking a Navy/Marine F-14 jet fighter cockpit and the trailer on which it was mounted.

"A detective with DeLand police told me that the property was considered stolen," Lowenstein said. "It's not. We bought it from a salvage dealer."

Lowenstein does not have a receipt for the cockpit that includes side walls, the floor, two seats, instruments and a canopy. But, he has board minutes and 2006 budgets to show the board discussed and allocated $3,130 for the cockpit. He hopes to find the museum check to present as proof of purchase.

DeLand police officials did not return calls Thursday.

NCIS agent Michael Skirpan, who left the receipt, declined comments and referred a call to the Jacksonville field office. That office referred calls to the Public Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. That agent did not return a call Thursday.

Lowenstein said the raid is probably part of the ongoing fight among members to run the museum established in 1992 at the DeLand airport to commemorate veterans and the former World War II Navy pilot training center there. The struggle boiled over in 2006 when a majority of board members resigned in a conflict with longtime museum member Dale Alexander, who died earlier this month. They expected him to resign, too, but he stepped in as president and set up a new board of directors.

Members of the old guard said the board was illegally elected and filed a complaint with the State Attorney's Office, which is still investigating.

At the museum's annual meeting in January, the sides clashed again but the old guard convinced most members to attend another meeting where Lowenstein and other veteran members were elected to the board of directors.

The cockpit taken by federal agents was intended to be part of a flight simulator that museum members could take to air shows and other events, Lowenstein said. It is separate from the Navy-donated F-14 on display at the museum.

bob.koslow@news-jrnl.com

Found it here:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJ ... 041808.htm

[Nathan]

WTF?!!!!!

Its bad enough they are taking whole F-14's away from museums let alone a darn cockpit section.

Not like any museum would have the funding to restore a F-14 back to flight status and then use it to attack something with it.

Sorry but this kinda hit me the wrong way as you can see.

[Glen]

You have got to be kidding I hear that their is a Super huge Under world group that is getting out of the usual stuff like Inbeselment Prostituon Drugs and Racctering and going into the Surplus bunniness of F-14 Tomcat parts And this was just a Gov Pre emtive raid to surpress the supply and Demand if you belive that one...........................I got many more . That really S u c k s !

[F3A-1]

I find the governance of this museum to be as clear as mud, but I will do what I can to support them. Even though the F-14 is much more of a classified plane, the Navy's mode of operation is the same. This group is clearly preserving and promoting the preservation of Naval aviation history and deserves treatment of equal to being a U.S. Citizen at the least.

I forgot. They treat some worse.
(that fellow from FL, Peter Theophanus,,,,or something like that, and the Lake Mich SBD)

Pirate Lex
http://www.BrewsterCorsair.com

[tulsaboy]

I know that we can all debate the accuracy of newspaper articles, and the ability of the average reporter to decipher the intracicies of aviation subjects, but I think that the article raises several legitimate questions about the museum's acquisition of the F-14 cockpit section.

Since it wasn't on loan from NMNA and was purchased, and the fact that NCIS left a property receipt for the removal of the cockpit indicates that the Navy acknowledges that the museum did acquire the cockpit and did not have it on loan. Two questions then arise-

Was the museum's acquisition of the cockpit from the salvager legal? Presumably the financial transaction was made in a legal manner. The museum in most cases would not be prohibited from acquiring such an object.

The second question- did the salvager have the right to sell the cockpit section as a cockpit section? This may be where the rubber meets the road. In many contracts between the military and salvagers are provisions that the material is not to be sold in its present configuration. Often there are even provisions that require the salvager to cut the aircraft into pieces of a specific size, which is usually quite small (one foot square or less). In such a situation, the salvager might have violated his contract with the military in not cutting up the cockpit before resale, thus potentially voiding the salvager's contract with the military and rendering the cockpit military property. In that case, the salvager would not have had the legal right to sell the cockpit to the museum who ultimately becomes the victim in this situation. The museum would then definately have legal remedies avaialable, including suing the salvager to get its $3200 back.

Most likely, the museum didn't do anything wrong. But it will sure be an interesting case to follow.

kevin

[PbyCat-Guy]

I wonder if the NCIS did it because of the Iranain F-14s that are flying. They're desperate for parts to keep em flying. Even if this is the case, it still sucks, the "explicative" navy!

[jmkendall]

I don't know why the Navy goes through all this work to keep "Parts out of Iranian hands".

I remember reading not too long ago that the Iranians had set up a pretty good manufacturing system. They were even building New Engines and/or components for thier engines.

So; if this is indeed the case, then all else is just lunacy.

[kenlyco]

Does anyone know how many they were given (Iran) or how many are flying?,curious

[Forgotten Field]

Sorry, with nuclear weapons, anthrax, Al Quaida cells out there, I think NCIS could be spending more time on more important investigations than an F-14 cockpit section. I am aware of the requirements for scrapping aircraft. But there is so much more out there that needs to be addressed (like all the contractors cheating the US out of war money) that I think this is a waste of resources. We should all sleep safer tonight knowing that an F-14 fuselage won't be hitting the Pentagon or schoolbuses full of kids. Total crap. I hope the museum doesn't get sideways on this.

[Randy Haskin]

Take a deep breath, everyone. The word "Iran" isn't even mentioned in that article -- you guys jumped to that conclusion yourselves.

Before you start cursing the Gov't (and whatever "Inbeselment Prostituon Drugs and Racctering" is), look at the reasons stated in the article.