Man Stranded By No-Fly List Finally Returns Home

A man stranded by the no-fly list in Hawaii has finally been allowed to return home.

According to Yahoo News, Wade E. Hicks Jr. was on a military flight from California to Japan to visit his wife, a US Navy Lieutenant stationed in Okinawa, when the plane made a stop in Hawaii. Hicks was told by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent that he had been placed on the no-fly list and wouldn’t be allowed to re-board the plane.

Hicks said: “I said, ‘How am I supposed to get off this island and go see my wife or go home?’ And her explanation was: ‘I don’t know.’ ”

So Hicks, miles away from home and an ocean away from his wife, was stranded in Hawaii.

The SF Gate reports that Hicks had been on a military plane (spouses of military personnel are allowed to hitch rides if there’s room) when he arrived in Hawaii but wasn’t allowed to take a military plane home. He also tried to get onto a commercial flight but the no-fly list kept him stranded on the island.

Hicks said that he hasn’t been told why he was put on the no-fly list. The 34-year-old from Gulfport, Mississippi, who has filed a request to the Transpiration Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security under the Freedom of Information Act, believes that he may have been placed on the list because of his controversial beliefs about 9/11.

Still, Hicks said that he has no criminal background and recently passed an extensive background check to receive a concealed weapons permit.

Hicks told the Jackson Sun:

“It’s scary to know that something like this can happen in a free country. You’re not accused of any crime. You haven’t been contacted by anyone. No investigation has been done. No due process has taken place.”

The no-fly list contains about 20,000 names. More than 500 of those names are supposedly American citizens. The government doesn’t disclose who is on the list or why they were placed on the list. According to the SF Gate, the no-fly list can be updated in minutes so it’s possible that Hicks was placed on the list mid-flight.

Hicks was eventually removed from the no-fly list after talking to politicians in Mississippi and Hawaii and was allowed to return home.