Alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione was flown back to the city from Pennsylvania in the department’s federally-funded spy plane.
The $4 million plane, specifically designed to hunt for radiological weapons, or “dirty bombs,” left Long Island MacArthur Airport at 8:51 a.m. on Dec. 19 and arrived in Blair County, Pa., at 10:24 a.m., records from FlightAware show.
The souped-up Cessna took off again with the Ivy Leaguer inside around 10:49 a.m. and landed at the Central Islip airport at 12:08 p.m., records show.
Mangione was then taken by helicopter to Manhattan.
Mangione, clad in an orange jumpsuit, was then led to the courthouse surrounded by city and federal agents with long guns — and even Mayor Adams — in a scene out of a Hollywood movie.
The NYPD said it determined the plane was the best way to get Mangione to NYC.
“After considering distance, weather, and the totality of the circumstances, it was determined that flying was the most efficient and safest method to transport the prisoner,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
The NYPD obtained the modified Cessna C208B Grand Caravan through a Preparedness Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2017.
The following year, five NYPD pilots were disciplined after using the plane to fly a route shaped like a giant penis because they were angry at their boss, The Post reported.
Other cops discovered the lewd pattern on the department’s flight-tracking software, sources said.
Also in 2018, more controversy was sparked when the plane was used to shuttle then-Mayor Bill de Blasio back and forth between the city and his Canadian vacation for the renaming of a Bronx street in honor of slain NYPD Detective Miosotis Familia.
Then- Police Commissioner James O’Neill admitted in that he had also used the plane “three or four times” that year because he was busy.
The top cop also said he was never on the Cessna for counterterrorism purposes.
One former police official questioned why authorities needed to use the pricey plane.
“It’s a show,” former NYPD Special Victims Division Chief Michael Osgood said, noting the trip would have taken about four hours in a car.
“Luigi is a punk,” said Osgood, who filed a lawsuit against the department and former commissioners after he was allegedly pushed out for helping investigators looking into his unit in 2018. “You put him in the back of a car and drive him back.”