View Full Version : Someone burned my helicopter!!!
This is the view that met me coming to work a couple of weeks ago!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v381/HeliKen/PICT2028.jpg
So much for Airport Security.
We got her flying again, but had to change the roof and the windshields.
B Sousa
5th Oct 2005, 03:06
Must be your finding out you have some folks who may not like you. Any idea what the cause was or why someone would do that.
Airport Security only applies to us "Lemmings" going through all the fancy machines to make sure that the previously unemployables have a job.
Dumb me, I just recognized the location and the Helicopter...........
Hope the guys that I know that fly there are looking over their shoulders..
Contract Pilots for a Police Department that seems to have some big drug problems through the islands. I still like the story of "Warning Shots" at one of the Smuggling boats.
Time to get some serious hanger for the machine........
TheMonk
5th Oct 2005, 05:48
Ouch! What a coward! If anyone has a problem with me, I hope they have enough guts to tell it to my face.
chopperpug
5th Oct 2005, 05:48
I know some people that would have just kicked the bubble out and kept flying..... :}
Doesn't do much for you trying to read maps tho......
alouette
5th Oct 2005, 06:32
Holy cow, you were lucky - better check your tanks and everything else next time.
Where did this happen? I gather if it reads "Politie Korps..." Was it in Cur? I remember we had a bullethole in the pilots windshield of the 206 in Cur because someone thought it would be a good idea to chill the boss.
Alouette :uhoh:
why it happened...some crazy islanders not interested to have a police helicopter hovering overhead pristine beaches preventing a possible drug drop...call me crazy if I am wrong...been there.
why it happened...some crazy islanders not interested to have a police helicopter hovering overhead pristine beaches preventing a possible drug drop...call me crazy if I am wrong...been there.
PANews
5th Oct 2005, 10:42
NETHERLANDS ANTILLES/ANTIGUA
Criminals made an attempt to halt police air operations last month. Early on a Sunday morning they cut through the fence of the Princess Juliana International Airport and set the tarpaulin covering the police Robinson R44 helicopter on fire. Fortunately, the damage was little, confined to the windshield.
Police in St. Maarten added aerial patrols to their operations in 2002, when an agreement was reached with Curacao-based Speedy Kopter, to lease the R-44. The aircraft is used for patrolling St. Maarten and the nearby Dutch Antilles territories of Saba and St. Eustatius. As a result of the incident efforts are being made to station the aircraft closer to the police station. The airport is about 30 minutes driving distance. [Antigua Sun]
tall and tasty
5th Oct 2005, 12:50
Any idea what the cause was or why someone would do that.
When I joined where I work now there was a spate of incidents on the little GA a/c parked up overnight on the pan. The foot prints on the wings all the way to the tip and the damaged windscreens indicated either young lads/lasses or small adults who obviously have nothing better to do than vandalise others property.
It is not tolerated at all now and anyone thinking of going ahead and doing it again will be seeing the inside of a lovely little holiday room with their own self service restaurant, all the amenities they want and won't cost them a penny in cost other than their own time wondering why they were so mindless in the first place!
The helis have not been touched. But it is usually bored individuals who hate the fact some can enjoy themselves in a different pastime. But they forget that these things are also used for other purposes
TnT
That Antigua Sun article pretty much sums it up. The company has been asking for years to move the helicopter away from the airport fence. Both to keep it out of view and to keep it safe. (it was parked VERY close to the fence, which is right by the main road)
We always got the answer that there is no room anywhere on the airport that can be used...none whatsoever. Well, when this happened, the top brass of the airport had a special meeting on short notice..on a sunday..and came up with the solution that we could park it in the exact spot we have been asking for...
funny how things like this happen...
A couple of weeks before this we got called to fly for a drug deal that went bad, and we found one of the main guys...in what the newspapers called a notorious gang on st. maarten. Coincidence?
The word on the street while we had the repairs done was that I was to scared to fly anymore. And the word from the airport Fire-Rescue people is that I SHOULD be to scared to fly....
Oh well.
alouette
5th Oct 2005, 19:12
Reminds me of Curacao...Ahhh..the good ol times:O
Revolutionary
6th Oct 2005, 04:24
I remember that helicopter... flew it down to St. Maarten from the dealer in Florida. Nice to see you're taking good care of her TIMTS;)
Hey, I do my best....
She does get a lot of TLC though...