Pilot’s Engine Failed, So He Landed On A Highway—Then Tribal Officials Seized His Plane For Flying Too Low

Back in December I wrote about a private pilot whose Stinson 108 engine seized and he executed an emergency landing on Minnesota State Highway 89 as it crossed the Red Lake Reservation. He had to choose between a lake, swamp, or road and this was by far the safest option.

Red Lake tribal police responded… and seized the aircraft, citing him for flying below 20,000 feet over Red Lake Nation. They impounded the plane and refused to give it back, citing a 1978 Tribal Council Resolution opposing low altitude military training flights over the reservation.

• the aircraft landed without required authorization
• the landing created safety, liability, and resource protection concerns, and
• law enforcement acted to ensure safety/ and enforce tribal law.

This was a genuine emergency. Red Lake Nation is on shaky ground – at best – asserting jurisdiction over its airspace. That is subject to exclusive federal authority. And a state highway crossing tribal land remains a public right of way. Use of the highway in an emergency was lawful.

Clearly, seizing aircraft that make otherwise-legal emergency landings creates a bad incentive to avoid the safest option in the future. And the air ban below 20,000 feet is simply illegal, but in practice that doesn’t matter.

• The federal government has exclusive sovereignty over U.S. airspace
  
• Citizens have a public right of transit through navigable airspace, which includes airspace needed for takeoff and landing.
  
• There’s a legal path to protect airspace, which is FAA-designation. That wasn’t followed here. And federal law preempts.
  
• Requiring pre-arrival permission for an engine-out emergency landing is incompatible with reality and part 91 regulation.
  
• The tribe lacks jurisdiction over a state highway right of way going through a reservation, and tribes generally lack authority over nonmembers on nonmember land inside reservations.

The tribe would argue a safety and welfare exceptions allow them to regulate activity on the highway, but an emergency landing on a state right of way is the exact opposite – it’s the safest route. And they have no authority over the airspace in any case.

Here was the problem: Red Lake has its own tribal courts. And they have some jurisdiction for public safety and potential violations here. They can’t legally seize the aircraft, but they can claim to just be securing the scene and investigating and taking a really long time to do it.

And you generally have to exhaust tribal court remedies before making it to federal court. So the tribe gets to litigate on its home turf, protecting tribal authority. This can go on for years before reaching a neutral court.

So what the tribe did was illegal, but the cost and time involved in challenging them is prohibitive. The tribe isn’t supposed to be able to control the sky, or punish a landing like this, but vindicating those rights through the courts is nearly impossible.

I wrote that the best path would be political, and that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association sought assistance from the Department of Transportation rather than the courts.

That worked. After six more months, rather than years, the tribe returned the aircraft without admission of fault.

In a June 1, 2026, letter to Smedsmo’s attorney, the Red Lake Nation Prosecution Office said it “has decided not to bring trespass or other related charges against Mr. Smedsmo with respect to his conduct on the Red Lake Nation lands on October 15, 2025; and the Prosecution has decided that it would be fair and equitable to return Mr. Smedsmo’s airplane to him at this time.”

The plane was returned to Smedsmo on June 3, 2026.

The Tribe still insists on advance notice for use of its airspace in an emergency, which is absurd, because many emergencies do not offer this opportunity and the tribe has no authority to enforce this requirement. It’s a face saving position. But the reality of the situation is underscored by their capitulation to DOT pressure.