IN OCTOBER last year a man visited the Mount Isa Police Station to complain about how his light aircraft nearly crashed.
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This was the latest of several incidents that appeared to target two charter companies based in Mount Isa, Detective-Inspector Chris Hodgman said.
The complaint triggered investigation Oscar-Demotic which was completed on Tuesday when police arrested a 31-year-old charter operator.
The operator based at Mount Isa Airport has been charged with 342 offences from 14 sections of Queensland and Commonwealth legislation.
These charges include tampering with airplanes, unlicensed flying, and dangerous operation of a vehicle.
Detective Inspector Hodgman said these offences had nothing to do with commercial airlines.
Police would not identify the man who is scheduled to appear in the Mount Isa Magistrates Court at 2pm, Wednesday, or even to confirm the name of the accused is Josh Hoch, published elsewhere.
Police are opposing bail due to the “serious nature of offences”.
“As soon as we found out about the offence we put methodologies in place to make sure the safety of the public was not compromised,” Detective Inspector Hodgman said.
