Michigan gov used unauthorized company for Florida charter flight

The private company whose plane ferried Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to Florida — in defiance of her own travel warnings — was not authorized to carry out charter flights, it was revealed Monday.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Elizabeth Isham Cory told the Detroit Free Press that neither Air Eagle LLC nor the Gulfstream jet Whitmer rode in has a Part 135 certificate, which is required by the FAA in order for aircraft owners fly passengers in exchange for money. “The governor needed secure transportation, the company was able to provide that, and the trip was paid for,” Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy told the Free Press in response. Calls to a phone number associated with Air Eagle by the Post went unanswered.