Says Infamous Father Keeping His Charter Company Grounded

Craig Schweitzer says he tried to follow the rules in starting a charter airline in Kenai, AK. He accuses the FAA of having an ulterior motive in keeping that operation on the ground.

Schweitzer is the son of Leroy Schweitzer. If that name doesn't ring a bell, the organization the elder man once led probably will: the Montana Freemen, who held US marshals at bay during a widely-publicized 81-day standoff in 1996.

Craig started Mavrik Aire in Alaska the same year, and says he told his father he should "play by the rules" when dealing with the government. That was advice Leroy Schweitzer did not heed... and in the wake of numerous disputes with neighbors and the FAA, his son now says he's not so sure his father wasn't right to take on the federal government.

"As much as people love America -- and I feel for it too -- I think our government has betrayed us," Schweitzer told the Anchorage Daily News in a recent interview. "There are men who fought and died for the freedoms we're supposed to have in this country."

What provoked the Alaskan pilot? Craig Schweitzer maintains FAA inspectors have sought reasons to shut his business down for years, due solely to his family ties. Last Thursday, the FAA succeeded in grounding Schweitzer -- as a judge rejected an earlier appeal by the man after the FAA stripped him of his license.

Schweitzer says the FAA won over a technicality: that he didn't disclose a citation for refusing to take a breath test on suspicion of drunken driving on an application for an FAA medical. He says he had disclosed it before.

Those accusations are "malarkey," in the words of the former FAA inspector who built a case against Schweitzer, and Mavrik Aire, over an assortment of rules violations -- including failing to schedule flight checks, and illegally upping the gross weight rating on one of the operation's planes.

"Craig wants to operate according to his rules," said Spencer Hill, who retired from the FAA in March. "You start overloading an aircraft and then it becomes an unstable machine. This has caused a lot of wrecks."

Aware of Craig Schweitzer's lineage, FAA agents asked state troopers to accompany them when they served the man with an emergency revocation of his license in July. A spokeswoman for the state patrol acknowledges the agents feared for their safety... adding Schweitzer was fined $500 for assault, when he allegedly threatened to get a gun and shoot a woman serving him with legal papers regarding another matter.

For now, Mavrik Aire is still flying -- benefitting from an exemption to charter regs in Alaska, that allows the airline to fly hunters to camps... as long as Schweitzer is nowhere near the controls. Schweitzer says that will keep Mavrik Aire in operation for now... but come winter, when his business once relied on government cargo contracts to stay afloat, the FAA ban will keep his planes on the ground.

Schweitzer characterizes the incident as an example of the very type of government oppression his father tried to fight against. The Freemen rejected federal authority, even setting up its own court system... and placing liens on public officials' property. Today, Leroy Schweitzer is serving 22 years in jail, on charges including conspiracy, bank fraud, false claims to the IRS and threats against public officials.

"The government can come in and squash out the little guy -- the same government that my dad was fighting for 20 years," Schweitzer said. "Way back when my dad was fighting this battle, I said you should play by the rules. I did that for 15 years and all the sudden they said you can no longer work here.

"That's the court system that you guys have in this country," Schweitzer added.

Schweitzer has also run into problems with his neighbors at a North Kenai air park. Schweitzer runs Mavrik Aire from his home there, and has sued neighbors on allegations the homeowners association conspired to limit his access to a floatplane basin.

"What Craig Schweitzer has done is he tries to bully and intimidate people and rides his father's coattails, and says, 'If you don't follow my way of thinking I'm going to sue you,'" said neighbor Bill Woodin.

Former FAA inspector Hill says he tried "to work with Craig to keep him out of trouble, but every time I turned around there was another problem."

FMI: www.mavrikaire.com, www.faa.gov