Man tried to shoot down spray plane

[rotornut]

Charges laid in airplane shooting

this document web posted: Wednesday July 27, 2005 20050728p17

By Ian Bell
Brandon bureau

Charges have been laid against a man who allegedly tried to shoot down a spray plane in southern Manitoba July 13.

Thomas Bruce Creith, 46, who lives near Pilot Mound, was charged with careless use of a firearm, pointing a firearm, illegal possession of a firearm and intent to endanger the life of the pilot.

The charges followed an incident in which a spray plane was shot at while spraying a canola field adjacent to the land of the accused.

One bullet struck the plane's engine mount, located about a metre from where the pilot was seated.

"The other shot was heading straight for the pilot," said the plane's owner, Bill Nyman, who runs Provincial Airways at Moose Jaw, Sask. "It went into the hopper and the chemical stopped the bullet."

The hopper is the compartment where pesticides blended with water are carried in spray planes.

The pilot was not injured. He became aware of the shooting after landing and noticing a leak in the hopper.

The aggravation of noise from the plane may have been what prompted the shooting, said RCMP cpl. Rusty Spragg.

"The guy got upset and took a couple of potshots at him."

Spragg said that to his knowledge this is the first time Creith has ever faced criminal charges. The accused is scheduled to appear in provincial court in Morden, Man., on Aug. 9.

The plane and pilot were subcontracted to Bob Wiebe, owner of JB Agro at Cartwright, Man.

Wiebe could only speculate about why someone would shoot at a spray plane: "I guess he just didn't like the noise or something. I'm not sure."

Nyman said he was glad charges were laid. He estimated it will cost about $8,000 to repair the damages to the plane.

Spray planes have been a common sight over the fields of Manitoba this year. Due to the wet weather, fields often were too soggy to spray pesticides using ground applicators.

Wiebe said he cannot find enough planes to meet the demand from farmers.

The Western Producer

http://www.producer.com/registered/articles/2005/0728/news/20050728news15.html

[Jerricho]

Ahhh, you gotta love living in Manitoba :rolleyes:

[Agaricus bisporus]

15 yrs ago I found a hole in the boot floor of the Jetranger I was operating. It was ragged and dished upwards and corresponded with another hole below the fuselage. Size was a gnat's gnadger over a fifth of an inch...

Helo in question had recently done some tens of hours low level powerline surveys in a place where the local transport was a white escort ragtop with white bumpers and wheels...

Happens here too...

Never found the scrote who dunnit tho.

[Sunfish]

We have a warrior at YMMB that has a dent in the cowl from a large shotgun slug.

[MOR]

I reckon it was the con-trailers...:p

[Jerricho]

I think you mean the cons in trailers ;)

[Lowlevldevl]

Man tried to shoot down spray plane
Charges laid in airplane shooting

this document web posted: Wednesday July 27, 2005 20050728p17

By Ian Bell
Brandon bureau

Charges have been laid against a man who allegedly tried to shoot down a spray plane in southern Manitoba July 13.

Thomas Bruce Creith, 46, who lives near Pilot Mound, was charged with careless use of a firearm, pointing a firearm, illegal possession of a firearm and intent to endanger the life of the pilot.

The charges followed an incident in which a spray plane was shot at while spraying a canola field adjacent to the land of the accused.

One bullet struck the plane's engine mount, located about a metre from where the pilot was seated.

"The other shot was heading straight for the pilot," said the plane's owner, Bill Nyman, who runs Provincial Airways at Moose Jaw, Sask. "It went into the hopper and the chemical stopped the bullet."

The hopper is the compartment where pesticides blended with water are carried in spray planes.

The pilot was not injured. He became aware of the shooting after landing and noticing a leak in the hopper.

The aggravation of noise from the plane may have been what prompted the shooting, said RCMP cpl. Rusty Spragg.

"The guy got upset and took a couple of potshots at him."

Spragg said that to his knowledge this is the first time Creith has ever faced criminal charges. The accused is scheduled to appear in provincial court in Morden, Man., on Aug. 9.

The plane and pilot were subcontracted to Bob Wiebe, owner of JB Agro at Cartwright, Man.

Wiebe could only speculate about why someone would shoot at a spray plane: "I guess he just didn't like the noise or something. I'm not sure."

Nyman said he was glad charges were laid. He estimated it will cost about $8,000 to repair the damages to the plane.

Spray planes have been a common sight over the fields of Manitoba this year. Due to the wet weather, fields often were too soggy to spray pesticides using ground applicators.

Wiebe said he cannot find enough planes to meet the demand from farmers.

The Western Producer

http://www.producer.com/registered/...0728news15.html

[CaptW5]

This is part of an e-mail I received this week:

Sheriff says department helicopter was shot down
> (CNN) -- A Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department helicopter that crashed
> over the weekend in the yard of an Albuquerque home was brought down by a
> bullet, Sheriff Darren White said late Tuesday.
> At a news conference in New Mexico, White showed pictures of where a
> bullet penetrated the windshield of the aircraft, known as Metro One, and
> shattered on a pedal the pilot uses to fly the helicopter.
> The inside of the cockpit tested positive for lead fragments, according to
> forensic tests, and pilot Chris Holland and Deputy Ward Pfefferle suffered
> shrapnel wounds.
> White did not specifically explain how the bullet brought Metro One down
> Saturday night.
> "We intend to use every resource available to track down the coward who is
> responsible for this sick and twisted act," said White, who credited the
> experience of the crew for avoiding loss of life.
> An incredulous White promised to find the person who opened fire on the
> helicopter.
> "How could someone walk out in the middle of the night and take a gun and
> fire at a helicopter that's out there trying to protect the public?" he
> said. "It's a miracle they're alive."
> The FBI and Albuquerque police are assisting in the investigation.
> Authorities have set up a tip line at 505-980-2496 and also urged anyone
> with information to call CrimeStoppers at 505-843-STOP.

[virgo]

Fairly recently I was invited to have a ride in a police helicopter at Riverside, California.
During the patrol, the chopper was ordered to an out-of-town factory where there was a reported break-in to observe movements until the arrival of patrol cars.
As we circled the site I asked why we didn't use the hovering facility of the helicopter.
I was informed that a police helicopter at Reno had been shot down and the LA police helicopters had evidence of three aircraft being damaged by gunfire - bearing in mind that Californian baddies tend to have better fire-power than the average British soldier. The helicopter SOP was to keep moving and create the most difficult and smallest target !
(Makes a bunch of lager louts outside the Red Lion at 11.30 pm seem almost gentlemanly)

[av8boy]

Some years ago whilst working in the tower of an airport in the Los Angeles area I got a phone call from the driver of a Bonanza which had just landed. “There’s a bullet hole in my right wing! I’m pretty sure it happened within a mile of the runway threshold when I was landing!” I shut off the arrivals (AKA “targets”) and start making the appropriate notifications… airport security, facility manager, Regional Duty Officer, etc. This airport straddles the line separating the City of Los Angeles from another city, and so airport security calls both Police Departments. Two or three cars from the smaller city’s PD show up and are well-behaved (from an airport etiquette standpoint… staying away from runways, etc). Then an LAPD copter shows up, and is equally well-behaved (in all my years I always found the LAPD copter drivers to be consummate aviation professionals). All is good. Then, all of a sudden, no fewer than six LAPD cars show up and swarm the movement areas. They’re driving across and down the runway, going nose-to-nose with taxiing aircraft, not talking to the tower, and scaring the bejesus out of controllers and pilots alike. I’m expressing my “concern” to the LAPD copter driver and he’s trying his best to get the ground rodeo under control, especially since the cars are all moving around in an area where the apparent shooter isn’t.

Anyway, the big anticlimax was when the Bonanza driver called back from the FBO to say, “My mistake. It was [part of my right main landing gear] that made the hole in the wing.” (I’d mention which part of the gear it was, but I’d instantly and obviously be out of my depth)

Don’t get me wrong, I have some good friends who are LAPD cops. What’s more, if somebody is shooting near an airport, I’ll take all the law enforcement support I can get. But beware… we get awfully accustomed to the fact that most people driving on the airport have a pretty good idea of how to behave. When you bring in a new group with a higher purpose, stuff changes fast.

Now, Jerricho, if you’d be so kind… help me make this story fit the thread… It seemed like the right story when I started, but I think I got distracted again… :(

Dave

[Onan the Clumsy]

Charges have been laid against a man who allegedly tried to shoot down a spray plane in southern Manitoba July 13. Isn't Jerricho living in Manitoba at the moment? :E

[currawong]

The Mounties always get their man.:E

On the bright side, at least the neighbour didn't have a quad barrel ZSU 23 or similar....

[Agaricus bisporus]

Sometime back in the early '80s I was doing a CPL course at a busy civvy training airfield in central UK. It was dusk, flying had just stopped and it was time to head for the bar. Suddenly, in the near dark, a big helo appeared over the boundary fence and landed in the middle of the airfield. As the airfield was closed and the thing was clearly a CH53 one or two of us went to investigate. The crew were friendly and said they'd been flogging along and heard a bang which was followed by a continuous high pitched whistling. Seeing a dark airfield belw they just flopped into it to investigate. One fella was examining the machine, particularly the rotors, with a huge flashlight. He soon found a hole at mid chord and mid span of one of the blades. It was a long way up but was clearly visible, they couldn't have missed it on a daytime walkround, and it sure as hell would have made a very funny noise had it been there from the start of their trip. It was obviously a bullet hole, probably fullbore - much bigger than a 22, and it clearly hadn't been there since 'Nam...
We left them to it, I think they went looking for ladders to examine it better and soon flew away.

[rotornut]

A few years ago I was at Moosonee, Ontario where an AME showed me an Otter that had apparently been hit by shotgun pellets in the wing. Fortunately they didn't penetrate the skin. Up there the floatplanes fly quite low and the engineer figured an angry goose hunter had taken a shot at the plane.

[Onan the Clumsy]

...or a shortsighted one like this guy ==> :8