Two Bell 206's Shot Down in Mexico

[BlenderPilot]

Monday March 10th

Today two Bell 206L4 helicopters were shot down by AK47 fire while spraying a drug crop (amapola) in the mountains north of Acapulco, the 5 occupants in both aircraft died, these helicopters were part of a fleet of 100+ helicopters whose only job is the "war on drugs", they belonged to the Federal Police and were operated by civilian pilots. Both were working as a team, one spraying while the other one above is watching in case anybody want's to shoot at the working helicopter, they usually look for dogs or small fires that belong to the field caretakers, I guess this was sort of a well planned ambush.

I only want to mention that some people in the USA say that Mexico does "nothing" to stop the flow and production of illegal drugs thru/in Mexico, and I just want to say that this might be to some degree, but I hope these 5 people didn't die for "nothing", the "war on drugs" is taken very seriously by the new Mexican goverment and it has become a top priority.

The picture below is of one this antidrug helicopters that was also shot down not long ago, fortunately in this one nobody died.

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/PGR206L4.jpg

More helicopter picutures HERE (http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/helicopterpictures/PhotoAlbum15.html)

[B Sousa]

Sounds to me like those folks in the cover Aircraft were sightseeing. Im also betting they were lightly armed if anything. Not a well planned mission. Sad but it usually takes something like this to get proper equipment for the troops in the field. Maybe next time the sprayer will be covered by some aggressive folks who will be watching and well armed.
And yes the US is just shoving money down a hole in this war on drugs. Either get it done or reduce the demand......
wonder what a war on prostitution would be like.......

[BlenderPilot]

The helicopter doing the application had only the pilot on board, the other one had 4 on board, 3 armed with high powered semi-automatic rifles, it's standard procedure and as you probably know it is the way it has been done throughout the country for the last 20 years, sure many have gotten shot at but never had 2 helicopters been shot down at the same time.

Did you say you worked for PGR sometime? Miguel worked for them for a very long time, he was doing interception with NVG's I think? I'm thinking working for PGR, they just bought some nice new equipment.

The war on prostitution? I get a kick of flying over the spot where all the "girls" hang out at night and throwing some "nitesun" on them just to see them run like hell thinking its a police raid! (me being in a ENG ship) Never gotten shot at though.

[All-Blacks]

Hey Bert

Get Gerry B and Arthur W out there with some of the surplus Mi-8s and they could have some fun. Be like the old days :}

AB

[B Sousa]

Oscar No on PGR. Im not used to working for ANY company with new equipment. In fact most everything i flew in the Military is now in a museum. Back to work and ran into Miguel today, but he was busy smiling at the Touristas for some Pesos


Yes Gerry and Fred and a few others would have real fun. Im wondering what the whole story is and how they got shot down. Small Arms, Stingers???. If I had four armed folks in an L4 Im certain I could bring a lot of Pee on some idiot with an AK......providing the had the cojones to shoot back.
Lets hear more Blenderman, on what happened.

[Heliport]

Associated Press report
MEXICO CITY -- Two helicopters from the Mexico Attorney General's office were shot down Monday in the mountains of western Mexico during an antinarcotics operation, killing all five officials on board.

The helicopters -- manned by drug investigators and an official from the Federal Investigative Agency -- had just lifted off to fumigate poppy plants when they were hit by high-powered weapons fired by unidentified assailants, the Attorney General's office said in a news release late Monday.

The aircraft crashed in the western state of Guerrero near the town of Tlapa, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the state capital, Chilpancingo, said Estuardo Mario Bermudez, director of the Attorney General's antidrug unit.

The victims were identified as pilots Alfredo Fon Soto and Efrain Esquivel Escalera; navigators Nahum Alvarez and Julio Cesar Guillen, and Federal Investigative Agency official Martin Nava Gonzalez.

Investigators were on the scene, Bermudez said.

The fumigation was part of a larger anti-drug operation dubbed "Mountain III," in which anti-narcotics agents from the Attorney General's office have fumigated more than 2,730 poppy and marijuana plants spread out over more than 330 hectares (815 acres) since the beginning of February.

[GLSNightPilot]

More than 2,730 PLANTS??? That's not enough for personal use for one person for very long. In a month, they've killed < 3,000 plants? Talk about a waste of time & money!

If they mean drug factories, that's a different story, but the story makes me think it was individual poppy & marijuana plants, & that means ~70 plants/day - which is probably closer to the truth, I doubt there are thousands of factories per square mile. If 70 poppies/day is the best they can do, they may as well just quit now.

[B Sousa]

Tejas Boy. We are talking Poppy plants not Marijuana. Lots of economic difference to the bad guys.

Someday maybe, but until then they spray and pull the plants, all that labor intensive crap........Dont they remember NAPALM......
Couple of tumbling Cigars will get Pedros ass out of the garden.....

[BlenderPilot]

GLSNightPilot

You said, "More than 2,730 PLANTS???" Its obviously plantations or small fields the word that should be in there, just an obvious typo but I guess some people need a more extensive explanation on things, glad to do it for you.


Senor Bert,

Napalm? That would be a very effective solution, but then the fire season would begin instantly!

About how it happened exactly I still don't know, but I will know soon since my boss went there right after in a B212 and I'm sure he will get precise info, I will let you know as soon as he comes back from the base in Acapulco. I've seen some pictures and one of them was complety turned into ashes except for the rotorhead and part of the MR blades, the other one was barely recognizable in lots of scattered pieces this one had a very considerable amount of 7.62mm rounds into it, Did Miguel know the pilots?

[B Sousa]

Blender Pilot Writes: "very considerable amount of 7.62mm rounds into it"

This is what Im saying. They protect Poppy fields much better than Marijuana. Obvious reason is Mo Money in Heroin. When you spray that stuff you better have some serious cover. Minimum of Chunker out the door.
I left a message for Miguel and am sending you a PM.

[GLSNightPilot]

There is a big difference between a field full of plants and one plant. A small change in wording makes a huge change in meaning. I'm still not certain which is correct. Almost 3,000 fields in just over a square mile makes for very, very small fields. As a guess, this would be ~.1acre/field, unless the entire square mile was a solid plantation. Still not much progress. Sounds like typical government over-hype. But at least they finally made the growers angry. IMO this is all a lost cause, it's just throwing money down a bottomless rathole.

[helmet fire]

Sounds like another environment for the use of gunships.

Love to see some one take a shot at a helo armed with the beauty of twin minis! Turn the old mates into a pink mist methinks. And it's fun too!

[Check 6]

The appropriate cover aircraft would be an AC-130. Just let Pedro stick his head up holding a piece. Pedro es historia.

Bert, that is what we needed in Humboldt County.

;) ;)

[B Sousa]

Stu,
I never took any hits in Humbolt. That crowd was mostly the Berkenstock, hairy legged type. Now Mendocino and Butte were a free fire zone. Those folks even shot at each other.

[Check 6]

Bert, in 82-83 I was flying a UH-1B in Humboldt, and we had to fly with two door gunners. We only had M-16's but it was a deterrent to stop most of the ground fire.

In early '82 we did a night departure from an old mill east of Garberville. Going through about 200' all we saw were "flash bulbs" on the surface, until we turned off the strobe and nav lights. Then like magic, the "flash bulbs" ceased. We turned them on again momentarily to confirm, and sure enough, the "flash bulbs" reappeared.

Needless to say we did not fly with lights on anymore at night.

One time flying a C-182RG it was real hot, so we opened the side windows. We were at roughly 1500 ft. AGL, slow flying with the prop running at about 1500 rpm (real quiet). In that configuration we could heard ground fire. This was over Island Mountain S/E of Garberville.

Those were the days!