New announcement: JUSTIN TAYLAN, PACIFIC AIR WRECKS OWNER ARRESTED & HELD IN SOLOMONS

[syscom3]

I Just saw this this morning!!!!!



JUSTIN TAYLAN, PACIFIC AIR WRECKS OWNER ARRESTED & HELD IN SOLOMONS!

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

I would like to share with you an important news release about my absence from email & regular contact.

My friends & I inadvertently observed the largest single salvage of WW2 Japanese aircraft wrecks, from Ballale Island.

I would like your help to make sure the truth about or captivity and charges are known to you, by sending the news release below.

After 18 days of being held without charges, we were arrested for 'illegal entry to Solomons", and have plead not guilty. Our trial is on Wednesday, December 12th at 9am in Gizo Court.

Also, to make you aware of the new website: Taylan Defense & Support Fund

For any future emails related to this matter, please use: justin@taylandefensefund.org

Our entire group is a part of this single defense fund. It is based in the USA for PR and financial considerations.



"NEVER GIVE UP"


- Justin Taylan, Yoji Sakaida & Rodney Pearce


TOURISTS HELD
CAPTIVE IN SOLOMON ISLANDS


One American’s Battle to Save World War II History in the South Pacific


SOLOMON ISLANDS — December 10, 2007 — American, Justin Taylan, 30, of Hyde Park, New York, has been held captive five weeks since November 6, 2007 in the Solomon Islands, a tiny Pacific island nation off the east coast of Australia. Taylan is founder of a non-profit history website detailing World War II stories and Pacific theater airplane wrecks. Traveling by boat from Papua New Guinea, he hoped to explore relics from the Battle of Guadalcanal.


Also held in custody by Solomon authorities are Taylan’s colleagues Yoji Sakaida, 41, of Chiba, Japan, World War II enthusiast and graphic designer, Rodney Pearce, 57, citizen of Australia and the ship’s captain.


On November 6, they inadvertently stumbled upon a salvage operation underway at Ballale Island, part of the famous Battle of Guadalcanal. “There are more World War II plane wrecks there than anywhere else in the world,” Taylan said. “We saw six Zero fighters, a Val dive bomber and a Betty bomber being removed. That’s why all this started.”


The group drew the attention of the salvagers. The Royal Solomon Island Police Force confiscated their passports, photos, and videotapes placing them in detention without charges. They have since been charged with illegally entering the country and pleaded innocent since they crossed borders through a published port of entry and in accordance with Solomon Islands law. Trial is set for December 12 and the maximum sentence is three years in jail.


Taylan testified in September 2006 before Papua New Guinea Parliament National Parliament in the “Inquiry into the National Museum and Art Gallery and the Sale and Export of the Swamp Ghost Aircraft.” He received an official commendation from the governing body that his “evidence as to the extent of the removal of these aircraft over the last decade and the complicity of the Museum to be of great assistance.”


The grandson of World War II combat photographer Carl Thien, Taylan gained an appreciation for Pacific War air battles early on. As a teenager, his grandfather returned with him to the Papua New Guinea to photograph wrecks in their original locations.


More information, photos, and updates are available at Taylan Defense & Support Fund. Interviews with Taylan may be arranged through the press contact listed above.


PACIFICWRECKS.COM Taylan searches out wrecks, safeguards human remains, and returns dog tags and other artifacts to surprised veterans. He is founder of PacificWrecks.com, a free, non-profit history website detailing World War II stories and Pacific theater airplane wrecks. that draws 45,000 hits a month. He produces and distributes historical his own documentaries and has appeared on The History Channel and PBS.


Taylan was featured in the November 2007 issue of Smithsonian Magazine in an article titled “Swamp Ghosts: In Papua New Guinea, a journalist investigates the controversy over a World War II bomber.” He wrote his first book about the war, “No Place for a Picnic,” at age 16 and has since been published in many historical and flight publications and spoken on this topic around the world.

Posted by Jim Lansdale for Justin TAYLAN

[Crumpp]

What shame.

You can bet the wrong person smelled money and this is their play to get some of it.

All the best,

Crumpp

[ccheese]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

You can bet the wrong person smelled money and this is their play to get some of it. Crumpp

You got that right. If the Papua New Guinea government would go about
this the proper way, the island group could be very rich. Salvers from around
the world would pay very good money to salvage one or two aircraft. The
Papua New Guinea government would have to do nothing but issue permits
and collect the money. The salvers would do all the work and pay the bill
for the salvage. Somebody needs to educate those people !!

Charles

[twoeagles]

I hope that 'salvage operation' doesn't mean the old method of chop it up and sell for aluminum scrap...As was done in the 1960's and 1970's in the Pacific...But, as already noted, money talks and tends to overrule common sense and historic responsibility.

[syscom3]

Originally Posted by ccheese

You got that right. If the Papua New Guinea government would go about
this the proper way, the island group could be very rich. Salvers from around
the world would pay very good money to salvage one or two aircraft. The
Papua New Guinea government would have to do nothing but issue permits
and collect the money. The salvers would do all the work and pay the bill
for the salvage. Somebody needs to educate those people !!

Charles

The govt there knows very well what the worth is for those old relics.

Corruption is the norm.

[Micdrow]

yeah its a total shame but like people have said. Money talks and if there is a way to make money people will find a way.

[Crumpp]

We should write a book on the Warbird business. At times it would read like a cheap spy novel. Not to sound jaded, but you would not believe some the incidents we have encountered.

We have governments try to block our efforts. Afraid the dirty business of neutral countries engaged in war profiteering would come out into the open. Their underhanded tactics led to their worst fear being realized.

We have had private individuals attempt scam us. This occurs very frequently and several times a year, someone tries to make a buck selling us fraudulent items. There was a guy who tried to pass off a plastic replica as real FuG25. He thought that his being overseas would protect him from prosecution. All it did was eat up time and resources that could have gone toward restoring the aircraft.

Had another guy try and scam us on an engine. Kept the engine tied up in civil courts overseas. The Norwegian and British Governments got involved in that one. He used our money to set up a fake company which secretly purchased the engine and then tried to resell it to us at a greatly inflated price.

We have had prominent businessman who are also restoring Warbirds for their private collection, threaten our suppliers and workers. They did it all in the name of wanting to be the first to have a specific type of aircraft flying. We are non-profit and would gladly help them without having to lower ourselves as human beings or being underhanded.

There is no profit in Warbirds for the restoration folks. All the baloney in-between makes sure of that. It is a labor of love for these airplanes in the end. The reality is the aircraft become a huge money pit that swallows enormous resources in the end. You will never get out what goes into them. White 1 is a multi-million dollar project. We could operate a fleet of P51’s for what we have invested in her now.

This will get tied up in court while they fight over it. Any profits will be eaten up in the process going to the lawyers. It will delay recovery efforts, maybe for years. In the end, the real losers are the public who enjoys seeing these aircraft and the history that is being lost.

All the best,

Crumpp

[FLYBOYJ]

Well said Crumpp. I spent many years working in Mojave and actually got into a few scraps with folks who basically tried to extort money from some of the people I was working for.

One guy threatened to sue my "employer" because the F-86 he owned "allegedly" carried the same markings of the aircraft is father flew. He felt he should get royalties - instead he got my boot in his @ss!

[Heinz]

Bah this irritates me. Bulldust artists those governments. I know a group were trying to salvage a pretty complete B 17 and yet again another old plane is left for nature to take over. Don't really know where their heads are at.

[ccheese]

I subscribe to Justin Taylan's "Pacific Ghosts". I received this email today:

Justin Taylan's trial in the Solomon Islands has yielded a guilty verdict. He was in the country as a tourist visiting Guadalcanal plane wrecks when his group stumbled upon a questionable salvage operation. They were apprehended by authorities and held captive for five weeks.

No other info.....

Charles