Former Gov. Mike Easley likely took more flights on private aircraft than are reflected in state Highway Patrol records.
A special unit that protects the governor handled logistics as part of its duties, including keeping up with flight itineraries. The unit also generates standard reports, known as a "governor's event" form, that describe planned transportation, security assignments, phone numbers, maps and other basic details of a speech or other event.
As a paramilitary organization, the patrol stresses proper recordkeeping to its members. And troopers always traveled with Easley, according to records and the private pilots who flew the governor. But the unit now says it didn't do a good job of maintaining its records all the time.
That would include the entire year of 2005.
The unit has produced some records showing the whereabouts of Easley and his wife, Mary, for 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and into 2009. But there is nothing for the entire first year of Easley's second term. And there are gaps in the records that were provided.
McQueen Campbell, an N.C. State University trustee and Raleigh real-estate broker who was one of Easley's pilots, said he flew Easley to Florida in 2005, for example. But the patrol says it doesn't have records from that year.
Other documents raise the likelihood of additional flights:
In late 2003, as the Easley campaign scrambled to figure out some flights, manager Jay Reiff wrote in an e-mail message to staffers: "Look to have one of the NASCAR team planes fly him. They will not be racing and they have a lot of planes based in Concord."
The patrol has two records of Easley flying on NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick's team planes. Easley went to Iowa to campaign for Sen. John Edwards in 2004 and fishing in Key West, Fla., in 2008. Edwards' campaign paid for the Iowa trip; Hendrick paid for the Florida vacation.
When The News & Observer first sought records about the 2008 flight, the Highway Patrol said repeatedly over several weeks that one didn't exist. The patrol later reversed itself and produced that document.
A campaign e-mail message says Easley was on a plane owned by state Board of Transportation member Cameron McRae in spring 2003. On April 30 that year, a campaign staffer wrote: "Cameron McRae's plane is a King Air 300. ... He flew the Governor a couple of weeks ago."
There are no other records of that flight; McRae's lawyer says he can't find a record of it.
A Sept. 4, 2003, event form said that the governor would leave a meeting in the Research Triangle Park and go directly to the airport for "air travel." There are no state flights or other documents showing a flight that day.
The Easley campaign reported receiving donations of air charters and travel on numerous dates that do not match other flight records.
Easley and his campaign lawyer, John Wallace of Raleigh, refused interview requests.
The Highway Patrol's commander, Col. Walter Wilson, said he can't explain why there are no records for 2005. The person in charge of the governor's protection detail for most of that time, Capt. Alan Melvin, refused to answer questions from The N&O.
Melvin traveled often with Easley. The N&O spotted Melvin at Easley's residence in Raleigh the day before the patrol released a first batch of records relating to private flights. A patrol spokesman said that Melvin at first denied being at Easley's house, but Melvin later said he misunderstood the question.
Melvin acknowledged that he had been at Easley's house; he said Friday he was there for a personal visit.
Because of gaps in the records, Wilson ordered an internal affairs investigation. That produced more records.
Wilson said that the protection unit's computers were examined and that the patrol has now produced all records that it has.
