British pilot who 'buzzed' Bush ranch to be deported

A British amateur pilot on a round-the-world flight faces being deported from the US after he landed near George Bush's ranch in Texas, where he had wanted to thank the President for his earlier rescue by the US Coast Guard.

Maurice Kirk, 63, who is nicknamed the "Flying Vet", was rescued from sharks in February when his Piper Cub light aircraft went down on the Caribbean leg of his trip.

Mr Kirk, from south Wales, was arrested on Saturday as he tried to pin a thank-you note to the President's front gate. He was taken in handcuffs to a psychiatric hospital in Austin, the capital of Texas.

After being released from the unit, he was then arrested for "walking around town aimlessly" with a petrol can. His wife, Kirstie, 48, said he was now being held in a deportation centre after turning down the option of voluntarily returning to the UK.

Mrs Kirk has been updating a blog devoted to the pilot at www.kirkflyingvet.com. On it, she wrote: "I was told that he was invited to a restaurant for a beer (probably Thursday evening). He said he was outside sitting on a bench with other people, when he was picked up by the police. (This is in line with the information I initially received via the Foreign Office.)

"Police stated that he had been seen walking around town aimlessly with a gas can. [Mr Kirk] believes that the Secret Service traced him to this location by him using his credit card and the public intoxication charge was used to hold him until the Secret Service arrived." Mrs Kirk, from St Donats, in the Vale of Glamorgan, added: "He was given the opportunity for Secret Service to drive him to the airport for a flight to London, and would not be deported.

"But he did not want the charges on his record for offences he did not commit. When he refused, they shackled him in hand and ankle cuffs and chains, and took him to the deportation centre in Houston."

Mrs Kirk – who is a vet like her husband – added that she was "humbled" by the public's support. "Most have responded warmly to his latest scrape though he has clearly exasperated some people."