You can hear the urgency in Chicago pilot Brad Schlenker’s voice when he calls his brother every other day from a prison in the West African country of Guinea.
The 63-year-old has asked his brother to contact President Donald Trump and other government officials for help after he and another pilot were imprisoned after they ran into trouble during a fuel stop in Guinea.
Schlenker has worked as a private pilot for decades.
Back in December, he and another pilot were flying a Brazilian family on a private plane from Suriname to Dubai when they stopped for fuel in Guinea.
“When they were approaching the airspace of Guinea, they were presented with a challenge of do you have a specific landing permit specific to Guinea in their pre-flight,” Brad Schlenker’s brother, Jon, said.
However, pilots were never informed of the specific permit, Jon Schlenker said, and they have transcripts of air traffic saying three times, “you are clear to land, you are clear to enter our space.”
“If they were entering airspace illegally and if they were a national threat — which is what they’re accusing them of — they should have told them to go to an alternative and they would have said ‘no problem,'” Jon Schlenker said. “They landed and they were greeted with 15 machine guns and 80-armed people in the distance. No there was no drugs on the plane, okay, they searched it five times with dogs.”
Jon Schlenker said the situation boils down to an administrative error at most.
They thought it be resolved in a few days, but weeks later, both pilots remain locked up in a Guinean prison.
“The fact that two American citizens are still in this prison after 45 days is an absolute embarrassment,” Jon Schlenker said.
He has sent emails to the White House, the U.S. State Department and other government officials and agencies, but has had no luck in getting his brother home.
A State Department spokesperson told us in a statement that the Trump Administration has “no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens” and the Department of State is “actively providing consular assistance and remains engaged on this case and in contact with the families of these detained Americans.”
Since their detention on Dec. 30, consular officers have visited them four times, the State Department said.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s office said in a statement they were recently made aware of the case and that Durbin “stands ready to provide whatever assistance is possible.”
“I’m not desperate because I believe God is sovereign over all this stuff,” Jon Schlenker said. “We can do what we can do. I have faith. I have optimism. I have hope.”
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