I was hired to fly a large corporate jet to a "secure" location for a very prominent repo outfit. My name came up first and foremost due to the type rating I have on the plane to be repo'ed. The other reason is due to my knowledge of the airport where the plane was going to be recovered from and my familiarity with the FBO at which the plane was going to be parked.
I arrived the day before the recovery day and the team was already mostly in place. They were using a meeting room at a hotel near the airport as the "war" room. The room was outfitted with phones, computers, white boards and an amazing array of keys and charts. The recovery company had seven employees there, the bank had one representative, there was an A&P mechanic on contract, a local law enforcement officer and myself and another pilot.
One of the employees of the recovery company explained the situation and told us what they expected to happen the following day and the timeline. We were then on our own to do a little prelim flight planning. After that we were both issued direct connect phones and given room keys to our hotel rooms. We were asked to stay on property and to not have any alcohol in case the timeline changed, and that we should charge anything and everything to our hotel room. So the other guy and I had some free time. We checked in to the war room a few times the remainder of that day and early evening.
The next morning we met in the war room at 7:00 for a briefing. The target plane was inbound on the expected flight plan and was going to arrive about 30 minutes early. The ground team was planning to depart on the recovery company's plane about an hour and a half before the target plane arrived. They would then fly to a nearby airport and land. They would then fly back to "our" airport and timed the arrival to arrive about 10 minutes after the target plane landed. They would then go to the same FBO as the target plane.
Once parked two people got off of the plane and go inside the FBO. They rented a meeting room and set up operations there. The pilots of the recovery company's plane would then go inside after shutting down and running a few checks to purchase fuel and pay the ramp fee etc. The remaining three people on the recovery company's plane stayed on board until the target plane was unattended. Then they would jump into action and tape the recovery notice to the plane. At this point they called the Federal Marshall's office and the local law enforcement to notify of a recovery. The officer who was present the previous day then arrived at the FBO and just stood by.
One of the employees inside explained to the pilots and FA of the repo'ed plane what was going on. They were then offered first class tickets to their home. They were also offered a temp contract as consultants for the recovery company. The temp contract would pay them a months average wage for pilots on that type of plane for about an hour's worth of work. Apparently they both accepted because when we were called to come to the FBO they gave us a run down on the plane. When we arrived we went thru the logs and discussed a few things with the A&P guy and then did an inspection of the plane. This was done pretty quickly as they recovery company and the bank rep had already been thru and around the plane.
We filed a flight plan and had fuel loaded. About an hour after we arrived to the FBO we were starting the engines and were gone. Three hours later at the company's hangar we were all done. In the office we were given a check for our time, signed a few documents, and handed an itin for our commercial flight home. A company employee called a cab for us and we were soon checking in at the commercial terminal. Getting home required a connection, but I was in my house by 9:00pm.
All in all it was nothing like the show. No breaking and entering, no hiding from airport security, law enforcement notified prior, ie no drama or suspense. I guess that doesn't make for good TV. I guess I should have known about the TV show though. In one episode they show the compass, with a heading of E, meaning the plane was headed east, and then the pilot says we are running out of gas.
