Brooksville plane forced down near Everglades by military

BROOKSVILLE — Jean-Claude Courtois was going to fly his new airplane, whether or not his instructor or airport officials thought he should. A tenuous grasp of English and the skills needed to pilot the plane were not going to keep him grounded, officials said.

So Courtois climbed into the Cessna 425, headed south toward the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and inadvertently flew into a storm of trouble.

In a week of heightened security following an attempted terrorist attack on a plane bound for Detroit, Courtois picked a bad time for a misunderstanding. He was forced down by military aircraft Wednesday afternoon at an airport in Collier County.

"This just got way out of hand," Don Silvernell, director of the Hernando County Airport, said Thursday. "Someone heard the words 'airplane' and 'foreign pilot,' and people started jumping to conclusions."

According to authorities, Courtois had recently bought the plane from American Aviation in Brooksville and had gone through a series of "check rides" at the Hernando airport with a Federal Aviation Administration-certified instructor to test the plane.

Courtois, who is reportedly a French citizen, was licensed to fly the aircraft in the United States.

But the instructor, who was not identified, recommended to Wendell Stephens of American Aviation that Courtois not fly because he could not communicate very well in English with anyone on the ground or in the air.

The instructor also told Courtois that his flying skills should be reevaluated by another instructor, according to a report by the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.

Stephens suggested to Courtois that before taking off again he should contact an instructor to try to improve certain skills, the report says.

But Courtois became indignant, climbed into the plane and took off, Stephens said.

Courtois was reportedly headed for Guadeloupe, an overseas protectorate of France located in the eastern Caribbean Sea.

Stephens stressed that Courtois was within his legal rights to take off and fly his plane. But "it became evident that he shouldn't have been taking off in the plane," he said. "It was a concern, for his safety and everyone involved."

Hoping to warn others about Courtois, Stephens said he placed a call to the FAA and air traffic controllers in Tampa. Silvernell said another call was placed to flight officials in Miami, since Courtois was expected to fly that way.

At some point, however, the FAA reported that the plane had been stolen. Authorities at the North American Aerospace Defense Command — the military agency that handles airspace threats — were alerted.

Jets responded quickly to pursue the small plane and two F-15's forced the plane down at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Collier County, according to reports.

"I kinda feel sorry for the guy," Silvernell said. "Can you imagine getting forced out of the air by a couple of F-15's? This was all a misunderstanding."

FAA spokesperson Arlene Salac said she wasn't sure who called the North American Aerospace Defense Command. But she said FAA officials planned to interview the pilot for more information.

Courtois' whereabouts were not clear Thursday.

Back in Hernando, few officials knew much of anything about Courtois or specifics of the incident. But Gary Schraut, chairman of the Hernando County Aviation Authority, said he was satisfied with the response.

"This is serious stuff," Schraut said. "The good news, it was nothing. The better news, we jumped all over it and made sure it was nothing."

Joel Anderson can be reached at joelanderson@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6120.