Armed agents raid Security Aviation
ANCHORAGE: Charter associate Robert Kane charged with failing to register rocket pod launcher.
By TATABOLINE BRANT and RICHARD MAUER / Anchorage Daily News
Published: February 3, 2006
Last Modified: February 3, 2006 at 11:00 AM
A local charter company with links to a fatal jet crash in Ketchikan last week had its Anchorage and Palmer aircraft hangars raided by armed federal agents Thursday morning and one person associated with the company has been arrested.
Robert F. Kane is charged with failing to register an explosive device, a “rocket pod launcher,” said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez. Gonzalez refused to give further details, including where the launcher was found. The case against Kane was filed Thursday in federal court under seal, according to a court clerk.
The FBI said it does not suspect terrorist involvement. Kane is associated with Security Aviation Inc., according to Joe Griffith, a pilot who said he has done contract work for the company since September and knows Kane well.
The FBI and numerous other state and federal agencies served search warrants Thursday morning on Security Aviation’s hangars at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the Palmer Airport. Several agents wearing black FBI vests with handguns strapped to their legs sat inside shiny, unmarked SUVs, blocking the entrance to Security’s Anchorage facility, on the south side of the airport near Kulis Air Guard Base.
The scene was much the same across town, on the 3200 block of C Street, where federal agents served a search warrant on Avery & Associates law firm.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7414445p-7326156c.html