Up! Up! And AWAYYYYYYYYyyyyyyyy!
S.C.-adjacent pilot used to run a sightseeing flight company in Alaska. One of the final reviews before closing down in 2021 was: “The owner is a flat earther and is quite off his rocker.”
A Facebook page apparently connected to the company says it “ended service and business in 2020.”
The page is littered with positive reviews up until 2021, when one commenter wrote: “The owner is a flat earther and is quite off his rocker.”
So many people lost their damn minds when the pandemic happened, they got shut in and angry, and went to the web where they met other people angry and looking for answers.
You’d think that a pilot, being able to see the curve of the earth for themselves, would NOT be a flat earther.
Never underestimate how batshit crazy some people are. I bet you could shoot most flat earthers into orbit or even to the moon, and they’d still insist on a flat earth.
You can’t see the curve, at most altitudes, in the way most people would expect. You can see, at all altitudes, even just standing on the ground, that there is a horizon that you can’t see past. You would think that a pilot would understand the flerf nonsense that you have to constantly ‘nose’ down’ to maintain altitude or else you’d just fly off into space is nonsense.
The same reason they think water on a globe earth would drip off of the bottom. It seems they don’t seem to grasp that there’s this mysterious force called gravity (which they also deny) that pulls everything toward the center.
I don’t think flerfers realize just how staggeringly big the earth is compared to them. Can’t find it now but there’s a YouTube video that starts out looking at an orange plain. Then the camera pulls back and it turns out it was a macrolens looking at one of the warts on a basketball as the narrator says it if the basketball was the size of the earth, that wart would be about sixty miles across.
Sovcit drivers are nothing new. But this is the first time I’ve heard of one who was a pilot.
A self-declared ‘free citizen’ flying an unlicensed plane almost caused a midair crash, feds say
A pilot calling himself a “free citizen” is accused of almost causing a midair crash after taking off in the direction of landing planes, federal investigators say.
[W]hen FAA inspectors caught up with Marsan when he landed back at the airport a few days later, he refused to cooperate, calling himself a “free citizen.”
He claimed he did not need a pilot’s certificate or medical certificate, which had been requested by the inspector, the indictment said.
Marsan had allowed his medical certificates — required by the FAA to fly solo — to lapse in 2021, the indictment said.
In 2022, he also wrote to the FAA to ask for his plane to be deregistered, it added.
A court memorandum filed on Monday said that Marsan planned to represent himself in the case, and that he said he was not a US citizen but an “American State National,” and therefore not subject to federal law.
…Is it?
I can’t help but feel the tiniest hint of deva vu here.
Serves me right for going to the bottom of the thread.
I’m pretty sure that’s even the same news article you posted.
It happens!
A little more on the Alaskan pilot mentioned up thread. Sovereign Citizen is so passé.
"No, he identifies as an American State National, which believes a whole bunch of other mumbo jumbo, from Police1:
Leaders of the ASN teach that acquiring a United States passport is one of the steps to becoming an ASN. They instruct followers to apply for “non-national citizen” passports, which they believe officially recognize their status as ASNs by the U.S. Department of State. [4] They also believe that the passport holder has been placed on a special “Do not detain, do not interrogate list,” and as a special bonus, the passport holder now has a concealed weapon permit valid in all 50 states [4] that cannot be revoked. However, there is no evidence to support these claims.
Followers also believe that possessing this special U.S. passport grants them diplomatic immunity, an entirely baseless notion. None of the teachings related to this special passport are valid or real, yet ASNs believe in them and act accordingly."
He’s not flying, he’s traveling!
He figured there’s no sky pirates to pull him over.
Another sovereign citizen success story:
There’s the problem right there. “Released on bond.”
If one of these loons is going to say the laws don’t apply to them, then they should also not be bondable. Let them rot.
“I don’t need a pilot’s license because Pontius Pilate killed Jesus and Jesus died on a cross and I’m not going to cross the international date line in my travels.”
That explains why they can’t get a date.
If there’s no such thing as government control over airspace, then farmers are free to shoot at anyone flying over their land. (Oh God, did I just invent the next SovCit claim?)
And the Second Amendment (the only part of the Constitution most SovCits recognize) allows them to have Surface to Air Missiles, amirite?
Nah, they love the 4th and the 5th despite the current fact that they do not apply the way they think they do in traffic stops.
Though I do agree the 4th and 5th are the bestest parts of the Magna Carta!