“I finally, finally, received a proposed settlement, and it was-it wasn’t acceptable. It wasn’t even a place to start with.” Source: Part of the ponderous narrative surrounding an Indian Tribe’s inexcusable seizure of an aircraft that made an emergency landing within tribal limits. Pilot Darrin Smedsmo was flying from Roseau to Bemidji, Minn., on Oct. 15 when the plane’s engine seized up, forcing him to make an emergency landing on the west side of Lower Red Lake. An allegedly proffered agreement states that the tribe will release the aircraft to Smedsmo upon the donation of $5,000 to the Red Lake Boys & Girls Club, along with payment of a $2,750 towing fee that occurred on the day of the incident — all for an accident/emergency that was just that… an unavoidable confrontation between physics and bad luck.
