Kent man sentenced for flying cracked, duct-taped plane without a license

A Kent man has been sentenced in federal court to probation for flying a plane without a license.

More:Streetsboro man, 69, allegedly beaten with fists, metal pipe; neighbor charged

Judge Solomon Oliver Jr., of the U.S. Sixth District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, on Monday sentenced Delbert Garfield Stewart, 72, to serve two years probation, according to court records. Oliver also fined Stewart $5,000 and ordered that he be confined for one weekend at a facility to be chosen by a probation officer within two months.

More:Aurora man charged in father's stabbing death will not testify in his bench trial

Court records show Stewart represented himself but retained various attorneys over the course of his case. An attorney retained by Stewart who was present at his sentencing did not return a phone call seeking comment.

According to an affidavit that a special agent with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General filed in court, the Federal Aviation Administration granted Stewart a private pilot certificate in 1978. According to the FAA's website, a private pilot certificate is a type of airman's certificate, which is a pilot's license.

The affidavit says that the FAA suspended Stewart's certificate for 180 days in February 2014. In a letter sent to Stewart several months earlier, the FAA informed him it was considering a suspension due to violations of "numerous FAA regulations" during a flight from Atlanta to Portage County Airport. This included flying in unauthorized conditions and climbing to an elevation above what he had been cleared to fly.

Stewart did not appeal the suspension, nor did he surrender his certificate, as federal regulations require. This resulted in its suspension remaining in effect indefinitely.

In March 2014, while landing his single-engine plane at the Portage airport, the landing gear failed to come down all the way and the plane landed on its body. Stewart did not submit the plane to inspection and the FAA suspended its airworthiness certificate.

In 2019, Stewart flew the plane multiple times to and from an airport in Indiana. This included three flights carrying passengers on the same day. On the last of these flights, the plane's landing gear again failed to come down and it again landed on its body, records show.

In October 2019, the FAA issued an emergency order revoking Stewart's still suspended airman's certificate.

In the spring and early summer of 2020, the plane was flown out of the Portage airport multiple times. In early July, an FAA official and an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper started an imvestigation after Stewart landed with an adult female passenger on board at the airport. Stewart was again informed that his airman's certificate had been revokerd and the plane's airworthiness was suspended.

An examination of the plane soon after determined it had "a crack on the outer surface of the wing, damage to the outer surface of the fuselage, a crack on the outboard of the left gear well, and duct tape covering portions of the aircraft," according to the afidavit.

Stewart then made several flights in the plane to the Atlanta airport and in March 2021, he did not activate his plane's transponder until shortly before it landed, preventing airport personnel from tracking his plane.

The complaint against Stewart was filed in April 2021 and a grand jury indictment was filed the following month.

Stewart has claimed repeatedly, including in letters to the FAA, that the U.S. Department of Transportation, which includes the FAA, lacks jurisdiction under the U.S. Constitution because he is a private pilot and not engaging in interstate commerce. Stewart made a similar argument in a motion to dismiss the charges, but the court ruled that the Constitution's Commerce Clause does allow the federal government to regulate aircraft, even if the pilot is not receiving payment.

According to court records, Stewart pleaded guilty to one count of felony flying an airplane without a valid airman's certificate this past April. As part of a plea deal, two additional counts of the same charge were dismissed.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.