A corporate jet pilot from Chicago is back on U.S. soil after he said he was detained and held captive in the West African country of Guinea for more than five months.
He says he was jailed for violating the country’s airspace, which he says is false.
On June 1, Brad Schlenker finally got to embrace his 90-year-old father.
“It was quite emotional,” Schlenker said. “Dad kept asking my brother, ‘What’s going on? When is Brad coming home?’”
Back in December, Schlenker and his co-pilot were flying a family from Suriname to Dubai. They stopped in Guinea to refuel, that’s when they ran into trouble.
“Open the door, and I’m met with multiple machine guns and guys saying, ‘Get down, get down,’” he said. “We were cleared to conduct the approach. Cleared to land. And yet they come up with this verdict of your guilty for violating Guinea airspace. It’s an absolute farce. We have got the transcripts of all our communications. This is an aviation requirement.”
Schlenker said they were thrown in jail.
The State Department told NBC in a statement at the time that it was in contact with their families and consular officers visited the pilots four times.
Still, during his time behind bars, Schlenker said there was a deadly riot. He said 33 inmates were shot and killed.
Schlenker said after several months in prison, a plea deal arrived. And the businessman they were working for paid a large sum for their release.
“Twenty-thousand-dollar bond each, for me and the first officer each,” he said. “We we’re detained in Guinea until this whole thing got settled. We were released on house arrest March 13.”
Finally, this month, he returned home to his family.
“Too many people in this country do not appreciate what we have,” he said. “You don’t have any comprehension about what it’s like to live in such a hellish place.”
After spending a little time with his new wife, Schlenker said he plans to get back in the air. He said he has no plans on flying anywhere near Guinea again.
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