A pilot and possibly some passengers abandoned a small, unscheduled twin-engine airplane that crash landed at Houston Executive Airport Monday evening, carrying a large quantity of marijuana. The unknown number of occupants made no prior contact with airport officials and ditched the plane after its nose landing gear collapsed as it touched down on the runway. Witnesses describe seeing the "shadows" of a person or people fleeing from the wreck. It's mystifying that no one was caught: the small airport is surrounded by a ten-foot chain link perimeter fence, with three layers of barbed wire on top. Yet the occupant(s) vanished, with no hole discovered in the fence. “You could certainly classify [the marijuana on board] as a lot more than just personal use,” says John Kremmer, chief deputy of the Waller County Sheriff’s Department, without disclosing the exact amount. He adds, “We have no idea who the pilot was or where it came from.” The incident comes as the US Senate considers an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to crack down on smugglers who use ultralight aircraft (ULAs) to move drugs. A loophole in the current law punishes traffickers using ULAs less severely than those who use cars or larger aircraft, like the one abandoned in Houston. In any case, you have to find them first.