In Part 1 of "How Are You Still Alive?" you met pilot Billy Dekle of Florida, a flyer who cheated death more than once as he brought in tons of Colombian marijuana, not in large cargo planes, but in smaller singles and twins.In Part 2, his sto

EP 11 How Are You Still Alive? Part 1

May 15th, 2023 28m 32s

There are pilots who made millions smuggling and then walked away from the danger and the risk. Some invested their wealth in legitimate businesses and real estate; others blew it on expensive toys and partying. We will never know how many got

EP 10 Snow On The Palms

May 8th, 2023 30m 45s

Most drug smuggling pilots were eventually caught. Many went to prison, and when they did, they often lost everything they had. But then again, most didn't start with the wealth and connections of a Palm Beach pilot-the rich kid who made a fort

EP 9 Cocaine...A Bear...and a Final Word On Drew Thornton

May 1st, 2023 36m 57s

From the body of a parachutist found in a driveway in Tennessee, to the body of a black bear found in the woods of Georgia, the long strange tale of a narcotics cop turned narcotics smuggling pilot lives on nearly thirty eight years since his d

EP 8 Brotherhood of Eternal Love

Sep 28th, 2020 29m 33s

In the 1960's, 70's and 80's, a group of Southern Californians turned to smuggling to finance and build a counter culture community. But they hadn't started out as enlightened hippies. Before one long strange night of transformation, they had

EP 7 A Lure Hard To Resist

Sep 21st, 2020 23m 46s

For a time, pilot Jim Thurman lived a double life: corporate and charter pilot by day, and sometimes at night, a drug smuggler. After quickly working his way through the certificates and ratings he needed as a young pilot in the Atlanta area,

EP 6 Close Enough To Dying

Sep 14th, 2020 26m 21s

Flying an airplane loaded with drugs into the United States in the seventies and eighties often meant running a gauntlet of radar and surveillance aircraft. As the years went by, and as smuggling pilots and those who hired them became more cre

EP 5 The Nearly Impossible Landing

Sep 7th, 2020 25m 10s

On the hot summer night of August 3rd, 1975, just hours after an incredibly short and rough strip had been carved out of a tree covered hillside, and with that strip outlined by strings of Christmas tree lights, a pilot somehow landed a DC-4 l

EP 4 The Death of Drew Thornton

Aug 31st, 2020 25m 7s

This is the final episode in the story of the life and death of Drew Thornton, and the fallout from his ill-fated parachute jump on the night of September 10, 1985. When his body was identified, the news quickly traveled back to Lexington, and

EP 3 Disappearance and Assassination

Aug 24th, 2020 21m 53s

Episode Three of Fly By Night focuses on several deaths and disappearances surrounding pilot Drew Thornton and his fellow smugglers. There is the the still-unsolved disappearance of Melanie Flynn, a young woman who may have become too close to

EP 2 From Cop To Smuggler

Aug 17th, 2020 20m 19s

In this second of four episodes covering the story of Drew Thornton, we focus on how Thornton and his military school classmate Bradley Bryant built a major marijuana and cocaine smuggling operation known as “The Company” based in Lexington,

EP 1 The Story of Drew Thornton

Aug 10th, 2020 20m 55s

Fly By Night begins with the story of Andrew Carter Thornton III: a Kentucky pilot and skydiver who was a privileged son of the Bluegrass state. Thornton's long strange trip went from growing up as a child of a hard working and successful fam

Trailer

Fly By Night Trailer

Jul 29th, 2020 1m 38s

Introducing “Fly By Night”, with stories of pilots who used their skills to smuggle drugs in the 70’s and 80’s, and the people who chased them. The series begins with the story of a pilot who had been a corrupt cop and helped build one of the l