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Posted on 10/13/2001 1:34:05 PM PDT by EdZep

Aviation students detained at Lampson

Kanwalijit Singh Bhatti, 38, of the Republic of India, was detained Wednesday on an immigration violation, after landing a small aircraft at Lampson Field.

According to a press releass from the Lake County Sheriff's Department, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday a sheriff's deputy responded to Lampson Field to invistigate a report of two male subjects of Middle Eastern descent who had just landed a small aircraft, were carrying black bags and had requested directions to walk to Clear Lake. The reporting party had checked the plane's tail numbers and apparently had not been able to identify the origin of the flight.

Sheriff's personnel located Singh and Mhummad Arrshowd, 23, of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, walking on Soda Bay Road near the Cinema 5 movie theater. Both men were interviewed there and agreed to be transported back to the airport.

During the time that Singh and Arrshowd were being interviewed, the sheriff's deputy at the airport had been in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Federal Aviation Administration and Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) sue to the heightened level of security nationwide and locally. As the invistigation continued, it was learned that the plane, a Cessna 152, had been rented out of Edwards Air Force Base, Aero Club, and the two men had been students of an aviation school based out of San Jose.

A search was conducted of the plane, but nothing suspicious was identified or located. It was learned through INS records that Bhatti's visa had expired and he was subsequently detained for INS at the Hill Road jail facility. Arrshowd was released and flew to a Sacramento airport.

Jail locked down

Following reported anthrax scares in Florida and New York, the Lake County jail was placed at its highest level of security and a hazardous materials team was ordered in to secure an unidentified powdery substance that had been found in the wallet of an inmate of Indian descent.

The Indian man -- 38-year-old Kanwalijit Singh Bhattia, an aviation student in San Jose -- was detained Wednesday and transported to the Lake County jail after it was discovered that he was in the country on an expired visa, according to Sheriff Rod Mitchell.

During a field search, Bhattia was found to have no weapons on his person. However, upon his booking into the county jail, a smal, rectangular baggy containing a powdery substance was discovered in his wallet, according to Mitchell.

Bhattia explained that the substance was one he rubbed on his forehead and used during prayer ceremonies. But this substance raised the suspicions of the duty sergeant who entered him into the jail.

"What is likely to be the case is that it'll turn out to be an innocuous substance used to practice a particular religeon," said Mitchell. "But in light of all the circumstances of the past week or so, I thought preventative measures to protect our staff was in order."

Within the last week, incidents of anthrax exposure have been reported at media outlets in New York and Florida. In each case, an unsuspecting person contracted the deadly bacteria from a powdery substance.

To determine if the Hill Road Correctional facility was similarly threatened, the facility was "locked down" from approximately noon until 7 p.m. [Friday, as clarified in a photo caption].

During that time, new inmates were not entered into the jail, but booked at an alternate facility. The FBI was also alerted of the incident.

The FBI analyzed the substance's packaging, which included writing in a foreign script and -- most prominently displayed -- "SAI something India," Mitchell said.

Web sites were found to reference these letters and the use of a powdery substance in the practice of a particular religion in India, Mitchell said. With that knowledge in hand, and Bhattia's statement, "the FBI's suggestion was to go ahead and resume normal operational procedures," Mitchell said.

Despite those assurances, Mitchell ordered the county's hazmat unit into the jail. Staffed by personnel from the Kelseyville and Lakeshore Fire Departments, the unit secured the substance and placed it in a box that will be sent to the California Department of Justice for analysis.

[SNIP -- rest of story goes into how the lockdown impacted operation of a current murder trial]

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