‘Black flight’: Charter flight boss charged over alleged plot to smuggle Australians into Indonesia

Singapore: The owner of a small Queensland aviation business has been charged over an alleged plot to smuggle Australian fugitives into Indonesia.

Grant Schultz, 42, the owner of Rockhampton-based Stirling Helicopters, is alleged to have facilitated a flight to the Indonesian province of South Papua carrying a 34-year-old man on bail for kidnapping and a 35-year-old wanted for large-scale drug supply and manufacturing.

The alleged “black flight” was busted by Indonesian immigration authorities on November 17 in the town of Merauke when the two passengers were found on board without visas or passports. Officials also allegedly discovered 0.82 grams of methamphetamine.

The last leg of the flight, which took off from the remote Queensland community of Coen, was allegedly co-piloted by an Indonesian and a young Australian, whom this masthead understands is named Jay Davis.

Sources with knowledge of the situation have told this masthead that Davis may have been misled about the nature of the mission.

Davis and the two alleged fugitives were flown to Jakarta, where they remain detained.

Indonesian immigration authorities told this masthead the two “stowaways” allegedly planned to stay in the country.

Schultz allegedly “co-ordinated a sophisticated people-smuggling operation to help the fugitives escape from Australia”, AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer said on Thursday.

“We allege he co-ordinated a network of connected charter flights on different planes and with different companies over a week to smuggle the fugitives from NSW to north Queensland and then on to Indonesia,” Telfer said.

He said the final flight of the twin-engine Piper aircraft left Queensland with its transponder turned off.

“Black flights attempting to exploit the remoteness of north Queensland can try to fly under the radar by turning off transponders, but every time they land and take off at a remote airstrip, they attract attention,” Telfer said.

Schultz was charged after his home at Woolshed, in South East Queensland, was raided on Wednesday, along with the aviation company’s Rockhampton base. The AFP returned to the business on Thursday morning.

Records from a now-defunct website suggest Schultz had businesses in aviation, heavy haulage, earthmoving and house removals.

Employees attached to at least one of these divisions received emails this week informing them the business was being liquidated, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Schultz made headlines in 2023 when he survived a helicopter crash while battling bushfires. The company also caused a stir among aviation enthusiasts last year when a recently purchased Black Hawk helicopter flew into Rockhampton.

Telfer said charter operators should inform authorities if approached to facilitate suspicious travel.

“It’s pretty obvious if people approach you to get out of the country without telling authorities, I think that’s something that would raise your suspicion,” he said.

Telfer said the alleged smuggling involved a “very sophisticated strategy” that would likely come at “a very large cost”.

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