Remember the plane that landed in a Bryan pasture after Christmas? It's still there

Borrel wants it back and conversations are finally taking place with representatives of Borrel and the Bryan Business Council to get the plane back to the Louisiana man.

In a statement provided to The Eagle Thursday afternoon, Mike Gentry of West, Webb, Allbritton & Gentry, said the BBC received information on Wednesday from an attorney representing Borrel saying he engaged Lone Star Retrieval, an aircraft retrieval company in Ferris, to recover the plane. It is expected to take place one day next week, if weather permits.

The months since the incident have led to a wait for answers, a lawsuit, an online debate about the circumstances surrounding the landing and a strong claim from Borrel about Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez. Claims and counter-claims from involved parties, including Borrel, the business council and Gutierrez, have been issued this week.

The landing

On Dec. 27, 2022, Borrel left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 1:14 p.m. and said he was headed to his home to Marksville, Louisiana.

Plans changed when he said his engine quit. Borrel said he looked for the best option to survive and decided in the direction of a field. The plane made its emergency landing at 1:52 p.m., according to FlightAware, and was less than three miles from Easterwood Airport in College Station.

A statement provided to The Eagle by Gutierrez’s attorney, Matt Doss of Doss & Rodriguez PLLC, on Thursday said Borrel “refused to declare an emergency when asked by air traffic control on at least two occasions. Declaring an emergency would have permitted Borrel to land on the nearest runway available to him.”

“It was a miraculous landing,” Borrel told The Eagle. “I shouldn’t be alive. The FAA said that. Everybody said it. I’m a dead man talking to you right now.”

At the time of the emergency landing, cowboys from Gutierrez’s cattle company, La Pistola, were on the property. They tended to Borrel and later moved the cattle at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration and first responders, according to the statement from Doss.

“One of the guys on the horses said they never heard the airplane,” Borrel said. “He saw it and said it looked like it was floating on the trees and then it started rolling down the hill to where it is now.”

The response

Since January, Borrel said representatives from his insurance company, who did not respond to The Eagle as of press time, have tried to access and retrieve the plane. Borrel said their requests have been denied or not responded to.

“It’s not that they haven’t tried, because my understanding is that they’ve tried pretty regularly,” Borrel said.

A Bryan Business Council statement said neither Borrel nor his insurance company contacted the council or the company leasing the property following the emergency landing, and adds once the business council was made aware of a social media debate about the plane’s retrieval, the council contacted Borrel’s insurance company and requested the plane’s removal no later than Thursday. However, the plane wasn’t retrieved. Borrel said he wasn’t aware until March 10 that Gutierrez isn’t the owner of the land where his plane landed.

Borrel’s attorney, Don Swaim of Cunningham Swaim LLP, did not provide additional comment as to when Borrel’s representatives were put in contact with the Bryan Business Council, or why it has taken so long for the plane to be removed.

Borrel said the FAA wants to look at his airplane to find out what happened to the engine, but it’s still in the field. Removing the plane is not a simple procedure, either, Borrel said; permits must be obtained, a moving company must be scheduled and the wings must be removed and put on flatbed trucks.

“It’s not as simple as going and picking up a car and taking it to a shop,” Borrel said. “It’s a little more complex than that.”

Clifford Dorn, who runs Rafter D Genetics LLC, a private cattle company specializing in artificial insemination and embryo harvesting, currently leases the pasture where Borrel’s plane landed. He said no one representing Borrel had contacted him or Rafter D since the emergency landing, about getting access to the property to retrieve the plane.

“That’s the whole thing,” Dorn said. “They’re saying we won’t let them get that plane off. They’ve never asked me. I’ve never refused them to take that plane.”

Mayor Gutierrez

In April 2022, the Bryan Business Council agreed to a grazing lease that includes the pasture where the plane landed to Rafter D. Gutierrez is a client of Rafter D and had cattle on the property for artificial insemination and embryo harvesting at the time of the emergency landing, according to a BBC statement.

Gutierrez served as a member on the Bryan Business Council from Jan. 1, 2015, to Nov. 12, 2020; additionally he served as a non-voting liaison for the business council from Dec. 8, 2020 to Dec. 12, 2022, according the Lacey Lively, the city of Bryan’s communications and marketing director. The current members of the business council’s board of directors are: John Bush, Jack Valerius, Kevin Krolczyk, Linda Ravey, Jon Heidtke, Wade Beckman, Randy French, Austin Bryan, Brett Brewer, Kenny Lawson and Whitney Wright.

The Bryan Business Council statement said the council does not have a contract with Gutierrez, nor was the council aware that Gutierrez was a client of Rafter D.

Dorn told The Eagle that Gutierrez has been a longtime client of his, and their project to send embryos to Brazil had been underway for more than a year. Dorn said Gutierrez’s cattle were synchronized for the breeding program. When the plane made its emergency landing, Dorn said the cattle had to be rounded up into a small, wooden pen on the property’s fence line near Jones Road because FAA officials didn’t want the cattle near the plane.

Dorn said the cattle were kept in the pen “for an extended period of time” and noted a neighbor’s bull broke in and “messed up the whole program.” Dorn did not elaborate. It’s uncertain how long Gutierrez’s cattle were in the pen. As a result, the contract was canceled. Both Borrel and Dorn said fences around the property were not damaged during the plane’s emergency landing.

“If they would’ve picked up the plane right away, within the first week or two, there wouldn’t have been any problems out there at all,” Dorn said. “If the cows would’ve been free in the pasture, none of this would’ve happened. If we could’ve continued with our program, it wouldn’t have happened. There wouldn’t have been any issues.”

Damage claims

In a YouTube episode of “Probable Cause: Dan Gryder,” released on Sunday, Borrel was interviewed by Gryder, the host, and said Gutierrez called him in January, identified himself as the mayor of Bryan and told him damages would start at $250,000 for lost profits. Borrel said he told Gutierrez to contact his insurance company about that.

In a statement from Gutierrez’s attorney, the lost profits from the cattle program are now in excess of $269,700. The statement noted although it was not Gutierrez’s responsibility, he made several attempts to coordinate the retrieval of Borrel’s plane through a contractor and Borrel’s insurance. The statement said on each occasion the contractor canceled the retrieval.

Borrel did not provide the name of his insurance company to The Eagle, only the name of his individual agent, who did not return phone calls to The Eagle as of press time.

“At no time did Gutierrez or La Pistola Cattle Company ‘ransom’ or ‘hold hostage’ Borrel’s plane in exchange for payment of money, which was sensationalized by uninformed internet bloggers. Gutierrez never prevented Borrel or his representatives from retrieving his plane from the BBC property. Any reporting to the contrary is false and is actionable defamation,” Doss said in the statement. “Following the plane crash, Gutierrez advised Borrel and his insurance company of his desire to recover his business’ considerable financial losses.”

According to court documents obtained by The Eagle, a lawsuit was filed by Borrel in a Brazos County district court on Feb. 23 against Gutierrez and Colin Sergio Cardenas as Borrel sought immediate return of his plane and monetary relief of $250,000 or less. The lawsuit states Cardenas is the owner of property in the 8600 block of Jones Road. However, the Brazos County Appraisal District map doesn’t show the exact location of the property, and notes the land Borrel’s plane landed on is owned by the Bryan Business Council.

The lawsuit states Gutierrez has “repeatedly represented that he is the owner or otherwise controls the subject property” where Borrel’s plane landed and is located. A letter from Feb. 8 attached to the lawsuit said, “Gutierrez has indicated that he will not permit the subject aircraft to be removed from the property until his claim for lost profits is resolved.”

The statement from Gutierrez’s attorney added: “Following the plane crash, Gutierrez advised Borrel and his insurance company of his desire to recover his business’ considerable financial losses. It is Gutierrez’s desire to resolve the dispute with Borrel and his insurance company in an amicable, fair manner as quickly as possible.

“It is critical for the public to understand that Gutierrez’s involvement in this unfortunate incident with Borrel was as a private citizen and rancher, not in his capacity as Mayor of Bryan.”

As of Thursday, the plane remained in the field with cattle around it.

“I just want my airplane back,” Borrel said. “That’s all I want.”