On Friday, July 26, 2019 at 1:56:17 PM UTC-7, Bruce Friesen wrote:
On Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:22:27 PM UTC-7, 2G wrote:
This pilot made a DEEP entry into the US w/o, apparently, following the laws of the US:

Sorry, I should resist but I cannot.

This thread could be both amusing and informative, and well worth while. Unfortunately, the original poster is so keen to defend his error.

Every day, Westjet takes off from Vancouver and flies to Puerto Vallarta. For one example amongst hundreds. Every day. Clearly, there is some legal mechanism to do that. There is no doubt in my mind Chester has an understanding of the mechanisms and rules applicable to what he specifically is doing.

Should a passenger have a medical emergency on that Westjet flight, it will land in the U.S. not at the closest point of entry. Clearly, this is some legal mechanism to sort that out after the fact. Chester would be able to defend a landing as an emergency, given it would happen only with both a radical change in weather conditions and an engine failure.

I will concede that Chester's flight WAS NOT illegal, as I stated in the title. I did get a call-back from the Spokane FSDO, and it was pretty anti-climatic; they merely referred me to an AOPA webpage (which is pretty informative and is much better than the FAA's):

https://www.aopa.org/travel/international-travel/canada

It does mention not having to file an eAPIS, but no relief from the other requirements, if a flight that originates and ends at US airports, but crosses into Canadian airspace. It does not refer to the reverse situation, which would be Chester's case. The medical emergency you describe is bona fide; I am not as sure about Chester's case, which most likely would be weather related. And it would depend totally on which officer you had to deal with. Personally, I would not take the risk for this reason alone.

Tom