The Good, The Bad,
And The Video
Evidence
of ongoing bias and harassment against Pacific Wings by Kahului
Airport officials and Wackenhut surfaces. Incident caught on video.
J.M.
Buck
An
reportedly unprovoked attack on the president of a Maui-based
inter-island air carrier and two of his employees by Wackenhut
security guards at the Kahului Airport have been raising a lot
questions regarding the safety of Hawai‘i’s airports.
Safety, that is, from the very people who are supposed to protect
the airports.
Greg Kahlstorf, president of Pacific Wings, says that his company
has been the target of repeated acts of harassment by Wackenhut
security, the company contracted by the State Department of Transportation
to provide security at the Kahului Airport.
Kahlstorf and two employees, pilot Roman Sarkissian and TSA coordinator
Will Goshorn, were placed under “citizen’s arrest”
by Wackenhut employees on Oct. 20. While Sarkissian was being
detained, his whereabouts unknown, Kahlsdorf and Goshorn were
brutally assaulted and beaten in an airport conference room in
front of several witnesses by Robert “Butchie” Tam
Ho, a retired assistant police chief of the Maui Police Department,
and two other Wackenhut security guards under Tam Ho’s command.
Sec. 107.17 of the Federal Aviation Administration/Department
of Transportation Code of Federal Regulations specifically states
that to arrest or detain a person that a crime must have been
committed in the officer's presence, or, if suspected of a felony,
the officer must have reason to believe that the suspect has committed
it.
The arrests and assault took place during a peaceful conference
in front of witnesses. According to Kahlsdorf and eyewitnesses,
there was no crime committed whatsoever.
John Cluney, Maui director of Wackenhut Hawai‘i, declined
to comment on the incident, but did say that Tam Ho remains on
active duty at the airport. He also declined comment on past allegations
of impropriety by Wackenhut personnel.
Several messages were left for Tam Ho, but he did not return any
of the calls.
In light of video evidence and eyewitness accounts, Wackenhut
airport employees as well as certain airport officials have exhibited
prior histories of aggressive behavior towards Pacific Wings.
The pattern of harassment directed at Pacific Wings by Wackenhut
that has emerged over the past few years would be obvious even
to a second-grade schoolchild.
For the past three years, Kahlsdorf and his business partner Frank
Ford have had to appear in court approximately three to four times
a year to answer to literally 25-40 citations issued per month
against the airline by Wackenhut security. Many were for trivial
things that no one would ever think about: numerous citations
for improper use of an extension cord (Kahlsdorf says that was
a favorite of Wackenhut’s), improper use of drop cords for
lights, discharging aerosol spray paint in the hangar when they
had to paint over corrosion, to name a few. The carrier was cited
for many of the little necessary things done every day in the
course of maintaining aircraft.
“There were so many, we’d just come in and put the
tickets on a spike in the office every morning,” recalled
Kahlsdorf. “It got to where the court clerk knew us by name.
It just went on and on and on.”
Kahlsdorf says the county courts are very familiar with Wackenhut’s
hijinks. “Wackenhut has written hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of violations over the years, all of which they dismissed.”
Pacific Wings is a federally regulated airline, which makes them
exempt from the local Airports Division Procedures. This language
in the Kahului Airport Master Lease (No. DOT-A-05-0003 Section
4.9.02, Applicability) exempts federally regulated air carriers
from compliance with statutes, ordinances, laws, rules and regulations
of the state, counties, political subdivisions, agencies, authorities
or commissions, as air transportation is federally regulated and
local entities have no authority over it.
Despite the existence of official state documents that appear
to convey specific privileges to Pacific Wings as a signatory
on the lease, Wackenhut security personnel have reportedly interfered
twice this year with company picnics that were held in Pacific
Wings’ exclusive use space. One incident of harassment occurred
on July 4 of this year. In another incident that occurred on Labor
Day, a Wackenhut security guard assaulted a uniformed Pacific
Wings representative with an elbow to the chest.
“They could not provide us with any administrative rule
or policy to support their contention that we were not allowed
to operate a covered charcoal barbeque grill in an open space
on state land outside the AOA (air operations area),” wrote
Kahlsdorf in a complaint to Department of Transportation Deputy
Director Brian Sekiguchi. “They did not explain why a private
security firm would be involved with enforcement matters related
to fire safety, instead of the airport fire Chief and inspectors
appointed for that purpose.”
According to Kahlsdorf, Wackenhut personnel became increasingly
agitated and confrontational when questioned about the statutory
or policy basis for their seemingly arbitrary demands. “One
of the Wackenhut employees stood no more than one inch from my
face and began shouting at me in front of a terminal full of startled
passengers and employees,” Kahlsdorf wrote. Click
here to view video.
He told the Wackenhut employee that his behavior was unacceptable
and that if he did not calm down, cease and desist, he would contact
Sekiguchi immediately by cell phone.
“He stated that I should go ahead, because nothing [Sekiguchi]
could say was going to change his decision that we were not having
a barbeque,” Kahlsdorf continued. “Obviously he was
wrong, because moments after I handed him my cell phone (with
Sekiguchi on the other end) he quickly disappeared, and our company
event continued.”
Sekiguchi could not be reached for comment.
In the Labor Day harassment incident, the same security guard
that harassed them on July 4 was involved. And for the same thing
– having a barbecue in their exclusive use area.
Police were called to the scene that afternoon after a Wackenhut
employee intentionally elbowed Pacific Wings general operations
manager Gabriel Kimbrell in the chest (MPD report No. 05-79596).
Another police report (MPD Report No. 05-79572) was filed the
same day claiming that Wackenhut personnel were obstructing and
depriving Pacific Wings staff of reasonable access, enjoyment
and use of their exclusive use space. The terms relating to the
right of reasonable access, enjoyment and use in an air carrier’s
exclusive use space is set forth in the Airport-Airline Master
Lease.
Kahlsdorf captured the Labor Day incident on videotape.
“It is pure spectacle,” Kahlsdorf says of the videotaped
incident. “Security personnel refusing to identify themselves
or provide an employee number. Airport Operations employees refusing
to state their names or the purpose of their business. Words like
"Fatso" and "Fag" being directed at me by
airport security personnel. Physical attacks on my employees.”
The following is an excerpt of a written complaint filed by Kahlsdorf
with DOT deputy director Sekiguchi further detailing the Labor
Day incident:
“For more than three hours, two of your firefighters, three
of your operations personnel and three of your security guards
stood in a line just a few feet away from our trailer watching
our every move. None of them could cite a specific rule applicable
to air carriers that justified their presence. Aside from the
Airport-Airline Master lease I provided to police and fire personnel
detailing our rights under Section D, none of the state employees
involved could cite a single written rule or procedure prohibiting
our activity. After a Wackenhut officer made an oblique reference
to ‘open flame.’ I asked the fire department why open
lighter flames and cigarette combustion in the designated smoking
area adjacent to the barbeque would be any different or less dangerous
than the barbeque itself. He could not answer. I then called the
Maui Fire Department. They consider ‘open flame’ to
be a bonfire or open pit fire, and advised us that properly used
covered charcoal barbeques are neither open flame nor hazardous.
“When Acting Airport Operations Controller Unit Supervisor
Wilfred Pacubas arrived on the scene, he refused to recognize
or communicate with the designated operator of the airline certificate,
or to state his name or purpose for being there. When pressed
for an answer about what specific administrative rules might supercede
the rights granted to air carriers in the Airport-Airline Master
Lease, he refused to respond.”
The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) title 14, part 107 requires
that U.S. airports control access to secured areas. Regulation
security measures include the requirement that airport and airline
employees must display identification badges.
“ Mr. Pacubas also refused to display his SITA identification
while walking around inside the AOA above the waist with the name
and photo showing,” wrote Kahlsdorf. “Instead, he
reversed his ID so that only the back of the ID holder could be
seen. When Pacific Wings' Aircraft Operator Security Coordinator
challenged Mr. Pacubas as to his identity and the proper display
of his credentials (as we are trained to do when issued SITA ID)
Mr. Pacubas laughed and said, 'Why don't you file a complaint...
I'm the one you have to file it with.’ Then he hurried to
a van behind the AOA fence and locked himself inside.”
Kahlsdorf states that the harassment went on for another 45 minutes.
During this time, Sekiguchi was on the telephone with the Fire
Chief authorizing Pacific Wings to have their event, and Acting
Airport Manager Dale Tsubaki was allegedly on the phone with Wackenhut
directing them to prevent the airline from going forward their
picnic.
“It appeared to those observing the situation that Tsubaki
and Wackenhut were in some kind of petty tug-of-war with [Sekiguchi]
over control of the airport,” writes Kahlsdorf. “To
the employees and passengers observing these events at the terminal,
it was a worst-case/government-waste scenario.”
