Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

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After Darrin Smedsmo experienced a total engine failure in his 1946 Stinson 108 while flying over the Red Lake Nation reservation in Minnesota on October 15, the tribe <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2025-10-30/tribal-trial-solve-confiscated-stinson-108-situation">confiscated</a> the airplane. The tribe claims that Smedsmo wasn’t allowed to fly over the reservation, based on a 1978 tribal resolution claiming that no aircraft are allowed to fly over tribal land below 20,000 feet (above ground or sea level was not specified).
While he is waiting to see if the tribe will return his airplane, Smedsmo has launched a non-profit organization to <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2025-12-18/aopa-asks-government-help-recover-seized-airplane">fund</a> a lawsuit against the chairman of the Red Lake Nation to clarify and set a precedent acknowledging that the federal government has jurisdiction over all U.S. airspace. “Not only do we want to set legal precedent,” he told AIN, “but my lawyer also wants to approach this legislatively, with ‘Darrin’s law,’ stating that if we have an emergency landing in a reservation, we get to keep our airplane.”
The status of the airspace over tribal lands should not be in dispute, but there has been no action against the Red Lake Nation’s 1978 resolution. According to 49 U.S. Code § 40103 - “Sovereignty and use of airspace: (a) Sovereignty and Public Right of Transit.—(1) The <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=49-USC-2032517217-365988879&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=">United States</a> Government has exclusive sovereignty of airspace of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=49-USC-2032517217-365988879&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=">United States</a>. (2) A citizen of the United States has a public right of transit through the<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=49-USC-1627478495-365988914&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:49:subtitle:VII:part:A:subpart:i:chapter:401:section:40103"> navigable airspace.</a>"
The Red Lake Nation seems to acknowledge this on its website’s home page, which says: “The tribal government has full sovereignty over the reservation, subject only to the federal government.” Nevertheless, Smedsmo’s Stinson is still being held by the tribe.

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