John and Martha King got the surprise of their lives on the evening of August 28, when they landed in a Cessna 172 (N50545) at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport after some instrument currency practice. The Kings are well known to the aviation industry, not only as the founders and the faces of King Schools, which has helped train thousands of pilots, but also as tireless advocates of general aviation safety and education.

The landing was normal on that typical California late-summer evening, but then something unexpected and puzzling happened: the controller insisted that the Kings taxi to a remote corner of the airport instead of to the FBO. When the Kings saw that four police cars were waiting for them, they carefully complied with all directions even though they had no idea what was going on. The police cars emptied and officers surrounded the 172 with guns drawn. After shutting down the engine, an officer hailed the Kings on a loudspeaker and instructed each of them to exit the airplane. They were handcuffed and placed in separate police cars. “This is a risky, lethal situation,” King told AIN. “Do not argue, don’t complain, don’t explain, just do what you’re told. I was thinking not to screw this up and get shot.”
When one officer asked John for the vehicle identification number of the airplane, it was apparent that some behind-the-scenes discussion was going on about whether this was the correct airplane. Finally, John explained that the aircraft’s serial number could be found on a placard on the rear fuselage and an officer checked this. The officers told the Kings that the airplane was reported stolen by a U.S. government agency called the El Paso Intelligence Center (Epic), which tracks stolen aircraft and matches them to IFR flight activity. Epic had alerted the Santa Barbara police about the Cessna 172 that the Kings were flying, not knowing that it carried the retired N-number of a Cessna 150 that had been stolen eight years ago.