Pharies 'Bud' B. Petty

Pharies 'Bud' B. Petty (aka Peddy) was the head of Tepper Aviation, Inc., until his death in a plane crash in Angola in November 1989. His surname has been quite widely misreported as Peddy.

Petty's death in Angola in 1989
According to the UK Independent newspaper (which managed to misspell his name), Petty was quite clear in February 1989 that he had nothing to do with any arms shipments to UNITA:


 * "The CIA has appointed a new airline to ferry weaponry to the US and South African-backed Unita guerrillas fighting the Marxist government in Angola. The CIA's previous airline for this task was forced to close after media revelations. Tepper Aviation, based in Crestview, Florida, operates a Hercules freighter aircraft which, according to former employees, has flown between the Kamina air base in southern Zaire and Unita- held territory in eastern Angola... Bud Peddy, who heads Tepper, categorically denies that the Hercules has been in Zaire or Angola."

However, Petty died just a few months later when N9205T crashed in Angola:


 * "The Lockheed L-100 Hercules which crashed while on a US Central Intelligence Agency mission in Angola late last month was owned and operated by Tepper Aviation, a Florida-based company with a history of involvement with CIA operations. Bud Peddy, the head of Tepper Aviation, was piloting the aircraft and was killed in the crash along with, at least two West Germans, a Briton and a second American."

Petty's widow is Gracie T. Petty. She is currently secretary and treasurer of Tepper Aviation.

Company directorships
According to Tep Gup's profile of Bud Petty, "In 1981 Petty had gone to work for the Agency, living for a time in Washington, D.C. Later he moved to Florida and set up a series of dummy companies and Agency proprietaries that provided the CIA with planes and crews." . Petty appears on the registration documents of the following companies:


 * President and director of B. B. & G. Aviation Management Consultants, Inc., which was wound up in 1989.

SourceWatch resources

 * Angola
 * Central Intelligence Agency
 * Tepper Aviation, Inc.

Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations records

 * Company records for Tepper Aviation, accessed May 16, 2006.
 * Company records for B. B. & G. Aviation Management Consultants, Inc., accessed May 21, 2006.

Books

 * George Wright, "The Destruction of a Nation: United States Policy Toward Angola Since 1945", page 151. ISBN 074531029X. Mentions Tepper's activities in Angola.
 * Ted Gup, "The Book of Honor : Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA", pages 326-345 (search within the book). ISBN 0385495412. Gives a detailed account of the crash of N9205T.

Articles

 * Alan George, "Airline 'carrying CIA guns to Unita'", The Independent (UK), February 18, 1989. Available via.
 * "Angolan CIA Hercules air crash kills Tepper Aviation chief", Flight International, December 13, 1989. Available via.

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