FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 19, 1998
Contact: Jeff Nelligan
Telephone: (202) 366-6312
OIG 37-98
Guilty Plea Entered in Hazardous Materials Air Transport Violation
A Miami-based freight forwarder has entered a guilty plea to a charge of knowingly offering hazardous materials for air transport in violation of federal regulations, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced today.
According to William P. Tompkins, Special Agent in Charge of the DOT Inspector General's southeastern regional office, Transnational Aviation Systems, Inc., has agreed to enter a guilty plea and will be sentenced to probation and a criminal fine of $10,000. The plea agreement also will require the corporation to make restitution of $90,000 to the Miami-Dade County Fire Department for use in the department’s hazardous-materials response program.
According to court records, Transnational forwarded freight from Miami to countries in Central and South America. The corporation was acting on behalf of Staf Airlines, Inc., an Argentine air carrier. Transnational, through Staf, accepted and prepared cargo for shipment, including placing cargo on pallets to be shipped on aircraft.
In November 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received information from confidential sources that Transnational was intentionally accepting hazardous materials for commercial air transport, but concealing the nature of the shipments from the air carriers and pilots transporting the cargo.
On Nov. 21, 1996, FAA inspected cargo Transnational had offered for transport to a foreign air carrier. FAA discovered several pallets containing hazardous materials -- flammable liquids, including paint and solvents -- concealed in dark green plastic wrapping. Transnational had notified neither the air carrier nor the pilots who intended to fly the shipment of the presence of hazardous materials in the cargo. Further, the pallets were not labeled to show they carried hazardous materials. The carrier in question refused to transport hazardous materials.
The case was investigated by OIG and the civil aviation security division of the FAA.
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