Brassington brothers head to jail
NEWARK — Two Florida-based Guyanese brothers who founded a now-defunct charter jet company whose plane crashed at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport are headed to prison.
Thirty-seven-year-old Michael Brassington, the president, CEO and chief pilot of Florida-based Platinum Jet Management, a company that catered to celebrities like Jay-Z, Bon Jovi and Keith Richards, received a 30-month sentence yesterday.
His 32-year-old brother, Paul Brassington, who was a vice president, got an 18-month term.
The Fort Lauderdale men were convicted in November 2010 and last month, a federal judge in New Jersey rejected a bid for a new trial.
Michael Brassington was also convicted of lying to authorities and endangering the safety of an aircraft for deliberately understating the weight of the Teterboro plane.
Twenty people were injured in the 2005 crash, which occurred when the company’s fuel-overloaded jet failed to lift on takeoff.
Prosecutors say the Brassington brothers flouted and skirted FAA regulations and operated the charter company without proper licenses.
Several other defendants have been sentenced in the case.