(Guinea, Africa) — A Chicago-area pilot who continues to be held in Guinea after a routine fuel stop still hasn’t had any help from the U.S. Government.
Brad Schlenker is no longer in a Guinea jail but remains on house arrest at a hotel.
“The administration is not doing their due diligence and they are certainly not doing their job by abandoning me here in this country,” Schlenker told The Ray Stevens Show Wednesday morning on WLS-AM 890.
While he was initially taken into custody with his co-pilot over a paperwork issue, the situation has taken another turn. Schlenker says the plane that he was flying for a wealthy Brazilian family turned out to be stolen. He says at the time that he took the controls the plane checked out.
“He has a legal registration certificate, a legal air-worthiness certificate in the aircraft …so I did my due diligence. There’s nothing really more that we as pilots are required to do,” Schlenker said. “I even checked on the FAA website which is a step beyond what most pilots do.”
Schlenker spent two and a half months in prison and was transitioned to house arrest three weeks ago. He can’t leave the country and continues to hope pressure from the public on U.S. Senators and Congressmen will help lead to his release and trip home.
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