Blueprint for a Successful Repo

This is my third article discussing the botched Russian airliner repossessions.?The responses have been overwhelmingly positive and I appreciate that.?Some who were involved have chosen to try to defend their actions and have helped clarify things.?Unfortunately, not in the way they may have wanted.?The one question I can easily answer is what would we have done differently??I will dig into that a little bit now.?

When I did the interview with an international newspaper, the reporter asked how we could have gotten everything in place in a very short time.?That is the question, right??Others have asked this same question, whether involved in the failed attempts or people who are just curious.?Well, that is a question asked by someone without experience repossessing.?I had a discussion with my partner with IRG, Bob Weeks and asked this question to him.? He just laughed and said “That’s not how you do it.”?Right you are Bob.? What would we have done?? Let me tell you.

To begin with, let us get the time tables down. ?On November 10, 2021 the United States noticed unusual movement of Russian troops near the Ukraine border.?On December 7, 2021 President Biden warned Putin about sanctions if Russia attacked Ukraine.?On January 19th, President Biden made the fateful comment that included the “minor incursion” line.?We all knew what was going on and that an invasion was likely.?Once those comments were made by President Biden, planning should have begun.?On February 24th, 5 weeks later, sanctions against Russia were announced.?This should have been the point where the plan and people were put on standby to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.?On February 28th permission was given to get the airplanes.

These bigger, more complex cases with more assets, locations, dollars, people and governments involved need to be planned as if they are military operations.?If IRG was contacted, we would have begun gathering information on the entire fleet.?Gathering the pilots needed in the places needed that could do the job that was needed.?There were many things we would have begun doing on January 20th to get our team ready.?There is a lot of paperwork required to complete these jobs and we would have begun preparing it all.?????????

We have done many complex cases similar to this, if not to the same scale.?We have had to plan, coordinate and execute the repossession of 39 airplanes at one time.?We have had to secure 1,000-foot cargo ships and then, while docked in Jacksonville, deal with a medical emergency with a crew member that did not have clearance to enter the U.S.?Talk about working on the fly.?We have seized airliners in multiple locations at the same time and executed without an issue.?Every complex case needs to be planned and then planned again.?The planning improves with the time you have to plan it.?In this case, there was more than enough time to plan properly.?There should not have been any mistakes made because of a lack of planning.

People have asked for some additional details from IRG.?What specifically would IRG have done differently.?The first thing we would have done is created a response team.?Our team usually is made up of 2 repo men, 1-2 pilots, 1 security person and 1-2 others who help with governments, paperwork and the rest.?On a case of this magnitude, we would meet daily at first and then more often as we get closer to the “go” date.?I always do a morning meeting because I feel it is the best time to share any progress from the previous day and then plan the “things to do today”.?We discuss and meet as necessary throughout the day with any new issues that may come up. ?Each group is in charge of their own part of the case, but all parties are responsible for supporting everyone.?If the pilots do not know a 737 pilot in or around Bermuda, they let the team know and we share our resources.?It is amazing to see the mission coming together ??Again, we try to get as close to military precision as we can.?This is where the success of the mission is determined.

I always like to oversee the project.?Every successful response team has one lead person to receive communications and updates, share with the appropriate people and make the decisions.?In a mission like this one, I would have been working side by side with our logistics people.?The logistics group is responsible for establishing connections with government officials, filling out and submitting appropriate paperwork and gathering information to create the escape routes.?If we get a 747 in Istanbul, were do we go??How do we get there??They would prepare multiple plans to the pilots who would then choose the appropriate one based on conditions.?This is the most difficult part of any mission.?It requires so much thought and attention to detail.?It also requires us to consider the worst of all possible scenarios for the teams, which is very difficult.?If we handle the logistics properly, the mission should be successful.

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into a successful repossession mission.?Especially one as complex as this one.?The fact remains that the experienced people and companies are by far the most successful with these.?They take much more experience, knowledge and intuition to make them work.?Waiting until February 28th to begin planning a mission that we all knew would likely be necessary months before is the main problem.?

Now that the airplanes have all been moved into Russia, the opportunities are negligible.?This is something that would have motivated us throughout because we would have known, once gone they are gone forever.?We now know that many pilots were used for these missions.?Not repossession agents.?People ask why.?I do not know why they said they could do it or why they were hired to.?Hopefully these questions are asked in the United States and abroad.?It was the wrong move.?Can some of these airplanes still be repossessed??Absolutely yes.?Will they be??I cannot say for sure.?I guess it depends on who they hire to do so.

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