Pilot jailed in Republic of Guinea for 6 weeks. Here’s why he and the co-pilot are stuck there.
By Christine Sloan
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NEW JERSEY (WCBS) — A New Jersey pilot and his co-pilot have been jailed in a West African country for almost six weeks after landing there to refuel.
CBS News New York’s Christine Sloan spoke to both men on the phone on Monday.
Ewing resident Fabio Espinal Nunez has years of experience as a pilot, but the 33-year-old said nothing could prepare him for the terrifying ordeal when members of the Republic of Guinea military forced their way onto the plane he and co-pilot Brad Schlenker had landed in order to refuel.
“There were around 100 Army people and they were pointing AK-47s at us and talking in French, which we do not know,” Nunez said.
“More like screaming in French,” Schlenker added.
Speaking from the prison they are being held at, Nunez and Schlenker described what sounds like a scene out of a movie.
“Around four to five heavily armored vehicles pointing guns at us and saying that we need to go to the ground, we need to go to the ground,” Nunez said.
Nunez was flying a Brazilian family from Suriname to Dubai on a private plane. The flight log given to CBS News New York shows they had clearance to land, but the government still charged them with violating Guinean airspace.
“We’ve got the transcripts of the radio transmissions, all clearly revealing the fact that we were innocent and ambushed,” Schlenker said.
“The military is taking over the government there, and for whatever reason the civil government is allowing their release and the military is not,” said Lauren Stevenson, Espinal’s fiancé.
Stevenson said three judges from the civil government have cleared the men, who are scheduled to be in court in the coming weeks, but the hope is the U.S. government will get them out before then. She said she is asking the Trump administration to step in because the embassy in the Republic of Guinea isn’t doing much.
“We’re begging for their release. I mean, this has been over a month. We’re scared,” Stevenson said.
“Mr. Trump, can you please come down here and get us out of here?” Schlenker said.
CBS News New York reached out to the State Department, but did not immediately get a response. Congresswoman Bonne Watson Coleman’s office said it is looking into the pilots’ plight, but Nunez said he’s losing hope.
“Hopeless and helpless, too,” Nunez said.
“It has been terrible here,” Schlenker said.
CBS News New York also reached out to the Republic of Guinea’s mission in New York. Representatives said they’d get back to us soon.
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