Friday, November 2, 2001

Movie plane ticketed for landing in Lake Peachtree last week

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

In what may have been a first for Peachtree City police, a local officer ticketed an airplane last Wednesday for performing touch-and-go landings in Lake Peachtree.

The plane was in town for the filming of the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" at nearby Wynn's Pond in Coweta County, said Maj. Mike DuPree of the Peachtree City Police Department. The pilot, Malcom R. Folsom of Greenville, Maine, was ticketed for performing a prohibited activity in Peachtree City.

The department declined to file more serious charges after learning there are regulations that allow float planes to land in any body of water in which an gasoline-powered watercraft is operated, DuPree said. The pilot was also unaware that a request from movie officials to land float planes in Lake Peachtree was denied by city officials, DuPree added.

"The denial was not relayed to him," DuPree said. "He did not realize he was violating anything by doing what he did. ... He'd just skim the water and go back up. He was not sitting there."

Because no standard bonds have been adopted for this particular city ordinance, Folsom will have to appear in court to answer to the charges instead of pay a standard fine.

 

 

 


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