Seminole Pilot Pleads Guilty to Plane Crash That Injured Undocumented Immigrants

Feb. 7—A 46-year-old Seminole man is facing up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Thursday to transporting undocumented immigrants causing serious bodily injury, according to the Justice Department.

On Dec. 30, 2021, Tobias Penner Peters piloted an aircraft carrying five undocumented immigrants and crashed shortly after taking off from the Presidio Airport.

U.S. Border Patrol agents responding to the crash found the five injured undocumented immigrant passengers. Peters fled the crash site and was making his way to Mexico, according to the press release. Three months later he turned himself in at the Presidio Port of Entry.

One of the passengers injured in the crash suffered a back injury, was life-flighted to an El Paso hospital and remains in a wheelchair today, according to the press release.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25.

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