Nantucket's Migrant Plane False Alarm Brings National Attention

As we reported first on Monday, the story about a plane full of migrants from the southern border touching down on Nantucket was nothing more than a false alarm.

But that didn't stop the national media from descending on Nantucket Memorial Airport on Tuesday. Numerous photographers from outlets such as The New York Post and the Daily Mail were at the airport fence yesterday attempting to get a shot of the plane that sparked all the hoopla. But as we surmised on Monday, the Dornier jet was carrying executives from an investment company - not migrants.

As the photographers trained their lenses on the plane, the group that had unexpectedly found itself in the spotlight were whisked away four Cranberry Transportation vans.

The Dornier jet was the same type of plane that carried a group of 50 migrants to Martha's Vineyard last month, part of a tactic employed by Florida Governor and 2024 Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis to draw attention to immigration situation on the southern border. The plane that touched down on Nantucket was operated by Ultimate Jet Charters, the same company that was flew the migrants to the Vineyard.

That was perhaps the basis for the information sent to Nantucket Police by Nantucket Memorial Airport personnel that resulted in the issuance of a press release last Saturday that warned about a plane coming to the island with "many similarities" to the Vineyard incident.

But in the hours after the Nantucket Current report was published on Monday, the Nantucket Police Department issued an updated press release that read:

"The Nantucket Police Department has spoken directly with the charter company hired for the flight scheduled for arrival in Nantucket on Tuesday, October 11, 2022. The company confirms the scheduled flight will be carrying executives from an investment company. We believe this information to be credible. Nothing further."

After the plane landed on Tuesday, an associate of the executive from the investment company who sponsored the trip told the Current "this is the biggest non-story of all-time."