A light helicopter enthusiast — barred from flying by the feds back in 2000 after he stole one — has been flying a copter in and out of his backyard and just got convicted for it.
Specifically, Antonio Santonastaso, 62, of East Brookfield, is a fan of the Robinson R22 helicopter. It’s a small, single-engine two-seat light utility helicopter often used for training new pilots, according to the aircraft enthusiast website Flugzeuginfo.net.
He helped steal one from the Norwood Memorial Airport in May 2000 and was convicted of the theft in Norfolk Superior Court that year. On Tuesday, a federal jury in Worcester convicted him on charges related to flying another R22 out of his backyard without a license at least 50 times between April 28 and Nov. 11, 2018.
He was convicted of one count of serving as an airman without an airman certificate, one count of making false statements to federal agents and one count of attempted witness tampering. Santonastaso was indicted on the charges in May 2019. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman scheduled sentencing for Oct. 5.
Apparently, his neighbors weren’t big fans of a helicopter being operated in their neighborhood.
One neighbor complained to the Federal Aviation Administration that Santonastaso was flying too close to a swing-set in his yard that his grandchildren used, according to court records. Another neighbor made a point to record Santonastaso flying in and out of the yard and uploaded those videos to YouTube, according to the affidavit.
East Brookfield Police, following up on neighbor complaints, checked out Santonastaso’s property in February 2018 and found him flying under the supervision of his nephew, who had all the necessary licenses. But that one neighbor’s videos proved he often flew solo.
FAA investigators, when they inspected in April of that year, found the backyard flightpath “extremely hazardous” as it was “lined tightly with trees, with only a few feet of clearance for the helicopter’s rotor blades.”
Santonastaso, according to the court doc, showed inspectors upon their request a temporary airman certificate — dated 1985, years after its expiration date 120 days after being issued — and a medical certificate that the physician purported to have signed it told investigators himself was a forgery.
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