By John Lyons and Wenxin Fan
HONG KONG--Chinese authorities have detained a FedEx Corp. pilot
in the southern city of Guangzhou, elevating pressure on the
express shipping giant that is already in Beijing's crosshairs amid
a U.S.-China trade war.
The pilot, a former U.S. Air Force colonel named Todd A. Hohn,
was detained a week ago while waiting for a commercial flight to
his home in Hong Kong after flying deliveries throughout Asia from
the FedEx regional hub in Guangzhou, people familiar with the
matter said.
A lawyer for the Hohn family in Niceville, Fla., confirmed that
Mr. Hohn had been detained in China. He was a wing commander at the
Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma until 2017.
Reached briefly at his hotel room Thursday, Mr. Hohn identified
himself to a reporter and then referred all questions to a family
lawyer and discontinued the phone call. He is married and a father,
the people familiar with the matter said.
When he was detained, Mr. Hohn was carrying nonmetallic pellets
used in low-power replica air guns in a checked bag, the people
said. Chinese authorities have alleged that Mr. Hohn was illegally
transporting ammunition and have begun a criminal investigation,
the people said.
On Friday, China's foreign ministry confirmed that Guangzhou
airport customs detained a FedEx pilot on suspicion of smuggling
ammunition and later released him on bail. A ministry spokesperson
said a box of 681 air gun pellets was found in the man's
luggage.
Like many FedEx pilots working in the region, Mr. Hohn commutes
to the Guangzhou hub from his home in Hong Kong. Border police have
been checking bags of travelers between Hong Kong and the mainland
as pro-democracy protests rocking the city have turned increasingly
violent.
Mr. Hohn was detained Sept. 12 by Chinese security officials,
who escorted him from a preboarding executive lounge, interviewed
him and retained his passport, cellphone and other communication
devices, the people said.
Mr. Hohn has been told he isn't allowed to leave mainland China
until the investigation concludes, the people familiar with the
matter said.
"Chinese authorities in Guangzhou detained and later released
one of our pilots on bail after an item was found in his luggage
prior to a commercial flight," FedEx said in a statement to The
Wall Street Journal. "We are working with the appropriate
authorities to gain a better understanding of the facts."
Mr. Hohn was detained as he was waiting to board a flight with
Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. The
airline has come under increased scrutiny by Chinese authorities
after some of its employees took part in demonstrations in Hong
Kong or voiced support online for the opposition movement.
Mr. Hohn's last trip had been unexpectedly extended after he
volunteered to take over the flight duties of another FedEx pilot
whose wife had gone into labor and who was suddenly called away,
one of the people familiar with the matter said.
That tacked on an additional flight from Tokyo's Narita airport.
Mr. Hohn had completed that flight and was preparing to travel home
when he was detained.
He had cleared security with the air gun pellets, which are
often made of plastic, without any issues at both the airport in
Japan and an exit-screening at the FedEx facility in Guangzhou, the
people familiar with the matter said.
He graduated from Niceville High School in 1989 and received a
bachelor of arts degree from Florida State University in
Tallahassee in 1994, according to a 2012 article marking his
promotion to colonel in the local Niceville paper, the Bay
Beacon.
In a video posted on YouTube from 2016, Mr. Hohn reflected about
how the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had altered his life in the Air
Force and set off a 15-year military whirlwind in which he flew
soldiers in and out of combat, as well as flew the bodies of fallen
soldiers home.
He did a stint at the Pentagon before serving as commander of
the 97th Air Mobility Wing at the Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma,
according to the base's website. He stepped down in June 2017 after
more than two decades in the military. An Air Force Facebook page
showed him on his traditional last flight on June 13, 2017.
Later that month, he was part of a group of 21 new pilots who
had recently joined FedEx and were being welcomed by a union
membership committee, according to a FedEx union website.
Mr. Hohn's detention comes as China has repeatedly accused the
U.S. of fomenting the unrest in Hong Kong.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Tuesday
said American organizations are providing massive financial support
and also training protesters.
FedEx is reeling from the U.S. trade dispute with China and
weaker global macroeconomic conditions. Shares in FedEx plummeted
Wednesday by the most in a decade, a day after the delivery giant
cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year citing lower revenue
projections in its Express unit, which ferries packages and cargo
by planes around the world.
In June, FedEx was forced to apologize after it misrouted some
of Huawei Technologies' packages, including two that were sent to
FedEx's global hub in Memphis, Tenn., instead of to China. The Wall
Street Journal reported the parcels were misrouted after FedEx
changed its internal systems to comply with the Commerce
Department's new restrictions.
Huawei publicly complained, and Chinese officials said they were
opening an investigation into FedEx. FedEx made another apology in
June after a Huawei smartphone being shipped by a journalist in the
U.K. to the U.S. was returned to its sender.
Chinese police have since opened two investigations into FedEx.
Last month, the Chinese police said they were investigating the
company over the discovery of a gun in a package sent from the U.S.
to China. FedEx said the incident dated back to June, and that it
had notified the authorities about the shipment at the time.
China has strict gun control laws, and it is potentially a
criminal offense there to possess airsoft guns, similar to BB
pellet guns, which are sometimes sold by online retailers as toys.
It is unclear that carrying airsoft pellets alone would be
considered a violation.
Earlier this month, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said it had
launched a probe after FedEx was suspected of illegally shipping a
parcel containing knives to Hong Kong. FedEx said at the time the
shipment never left its origin city and was handed over to
authorities in the proper manner.
Write to John Lyons at john.lyons@wsj.com and Wenxin Fan at
Wenxin.Fan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2019 06:20 ET (10:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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