TAKING THEM UNDER HIS WING
Cop on mercy flight for fellow officers
HAMPDEN — Seven stranded police officers who were suddenly booted from a humanitarian mission in Puerto Rico were scooped up by a fellow cop who coughed up $10,000 of his own money to fly the heroes back home.
“I know any one of those guys would have done the same thing for me,” said Michael Kane, a patrolman with the Hampden Police Department. “It was rewarding to know that I was able to help these guys who gave up a week of their lives to help others.”
Kane, who is also a licensed pilot, had access to a Learjet through his company, Aircraft Management Sales and Service. He immediately offered to go get a group of officers from Easthampton, Holyoke, Hampden and Chelsea, who were part of the first wave of local cops sent to the island in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Last Wednesday, the officers left the ship where they docked and traveled about 80 miles south to Ponce, Puerto Rico, to check in on family members and distribute aid, according to a letter from the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
But the “upper level command structure” on the island was apparently unaware of the trip to Ponce, the chiefs’ letter states, and despite the efforts of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to clear up the misunderstanding, the seven officers were flown on a military jet to Savannah, Ga., where they landed just after 3 a.m. Friday morning with no way to get home.
“These guys truly did an amazing mission, we are very, very proud of them and, as far as we are concerned, they are heroes in every sense of the word,” Easthampton police Chief Robert Alberti said. “It’s very frustrating. Why are you sending our guys back under the cover of darkness? We are trying to get answers.”
In a statement, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said “there was a miscommunication regarding specific parameters of a humanitarian assignment that the officers were involved with, and as a result, the officers were rotated out of their assignment.”
Four hours after they landed in Savannah, Kane said his phone started going off. The officers weren’t able to get on a commercial flight with their police weapons and were effectively stuck, authorities said.
By 10:30 Friday morning, Kane said he was able to take off from Westfield and he landed in Savannah two hours later. All told, the seven officers returned to the Bay State to a heroes’ welcome by 4:30 in the afternoon.
The officers on the mission were not permitted to speak to the press.
“I can assure you that there was absolutely no wrongdoing whatsoever on the part of the seven local officers,” said Chelsea Chief Brian Kyes, who sent two officers to Puerto Rico. “Obviously, we are not happy with the decision.”