Scientology bigs allegedly tried to limit the airspace above the 2006 Los Angeles premiere of “Mission: Unattainable III” to stop a school prankster from flying “insulting” airplane banners aimed toward Tom Cruise and his controversial religion.
Documents passed down from a reportedly former top Scientology executive to the Every day Mail include a letter from the church’s “Watchdog Committee” from its “Office of Special Affairs,” ordering someone named “Linda” and the church’s “Director/Commanding Officer within the Office of Special Affairs, International Division” to “discover all the pieces you’ll be able to about them and let me know without delay.”
The documents, published Thursday, claim that Stephen “Josh” Schofield, a then-21-year-old University of Central Florida student, raised about $3,500 on the net forum offtopic.com to “sabotage” the movie’s May 4, 2006, premiere at Grauman’s (now TCL) Chinese Theatre.
Schofield had hired two airplanes to fly over the theater with banners reading: “The infant belongs to Xenu” — referring to Cruise and his then-partner Katie Holmes’ newborn daughter Suri — and “Hail Xenu (Heart) OT [Off Topic].”
Xenu refers back to the “galactic overlord” in Scientology’s mythology.
Scientology’s chief spokesperson Karin Pouw told the Every day Mail that she had no knowledge of the incident and will not locate any documents.
But when contacted by The Post on Thursday, Schofield claimed that the weather ultimately stopped them from pulling off the prank.
“The air company principally told me there was heavy fog in the realm that day, so the planes couldn’t take off,” Schofield told The Post. “They refunded the cash after which I refunded the cash to the folks that donated it.”
He also said that the prank was “not meant to be malicious in any way, it was just something we thought could be funny,” as Scientology was often within the news at the moment.
Schofield further claimed to The Post that he has never been contacted by anyone from the Church of Scientology.
The Post has reached out to reps for the church, Arnold Aerial Promoting and the Federal Aviation Administration for comment.
One other document obtained by the publication, allegedly written by Scientologist Kiersten Caetano on April 27, 2006, outlines the extraordinary efforts to “be sure that this flyover is killed.”
It includes statements that officials from the FAA and Los Angeles Police Department, the plane’s pilots and the California-based airplane company, Arnold Aerial Promoting, would all be “briefed” on the situation.
“The FAA contact said they don’t restrict that airspace for any reason and wouldn’t unless there was a reputable threat,” the letter reads.
When contacted by The Post on Thursday, a spokesperson for the LAPD said: “We’ve not heard of what you’re asking. Airspace restrictions could be handled by the FAA.”
Now-retired pilot Mario Lopez also told the Every day Mail that the weather was the explanation the planes never went up, but added that he received a number of calls in the times leading as much as the prank, which he now believes were Scientologists attempting to foil the prankster’s plans.
“It was really funny because generally, we don’t fly throughout the week. This happened on a Thursday night.
“I kept getting calls asking if I used to be busy on a Thursday night,” he continued. “I discovered that odd, like someone was trying to find something.”
