A New Jersey pilot has found himself on the receiving end of a license review by the FAA after he flew his small plane over the neighborhood, dropping rolls of toilet paper to the ground.
Pilot Warren Sanders took off in his Cessna 172S, did a few circles, then dropped the rolls near the athletic field of the local school.
His antics may appear to be part of the ultimate tp’ing revenge, but he was actually just using the plane to practice dropping streamers for an upcoming football game.
Sadly, the FAA and a local municipal judge couldn’t see the fun in the actions, and charged Sanders with the fourth-degree crime of knowingly and purposely flying over a densely populated area and dropping objects, specifically toilet paper, in violation of state statute.
The FAA does not allow pilots to drop anything from a plane unless reasonable precautions were made – but in this case, kids were playing on a nearby field, and could have been hit by the killer toilet paper projectiles. Or, perhaps just covered in streams of toilet paper slowly descending from the skies, depending on how accurate Sanders managed to drop them.
The final penalties range from a simple warning letter to suspension of his license – personally, I hope they just hand him a letter. This man isn’t a terrorist, he’s just a sports fan who made a bit of an error in judgment.
[Photo from Flickr/TerryJohnston]