S-64 attacked in Chile
 

Photos from FB, apparently eco terrorists attacked and set off a firebomb in a Chile based Erickson S64F Aircrane "Camille".

A statement attributed to Erickson said:


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Eco terrorists? You mean people that care about the environment? Can you elaborate or just stirring the pot?
Vandals for sure...but the Erickson statement doesn't mention Eco terrorists.
Shame that anyone would do that to a crane.

Put away your outrage and read what I said: ‘apparently eco terrorists’.

Based on a first hand report from an Erickson employee at the site during the attack, the perpetrators apparently believed the Crane to be involved in logging ops.

Not much caring for the environment involved in this criminal activity, regardless of who did it.

They burnt some FAASA Spain Augusta A119 Koalas about three years ago.

They are no Eco-Terrorists.....

They are native poplation who are fighting against the government to regain control of they´re lands.

This is the reason why some pilots doing firefighting use bulletproof vests why operators instruct they´re pilots never to go get water 2 times in the same route.
Why operators instruct they´re pilots to go only after the area has been secure by the military or the police.

Theres no Eco Terrorism in Chile

I don't see this in your original post!

Maybe because it wasn't in the original post and neither did I say that it was :rolleyes:

It was a response to blackdog7 post.

We have always been at war with East Asia (George Orwell, 1984)
It only takes one act of terrorism to create / become a terrorist. You don't have to be the Unabomber and do a lot of them.
I am going to take your post as a variaiton of "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist" and vice versa.

I know a few people who were spiking trees in Oregon and California back in the 90's. They referred to themselves as "environmental activists."

As a helicopter pilot, I consider anyone who wilfully vandalizes a helicopter to be a criminal and a vandal.
Are you excusing this vandalism? (I am asking because I am unclear as to your complete position on this).

In the first post a quote states after gaining entry to the secure area !

Could not have been that secure then ? You would think with high value assets It should have been very secure ????

Some may question why Erickson didn't have better security in a country where 36 protesters have died in the last year, over 28,000 have been arrested for protests, and over 400 people have suffered severe eye damage at the hands of the police. When the corrupt government of Sebastian Pinera gives away large plots of forests to his cronies, what could possibly go wrong?

This aircraft was built in 1969 as a CH-54B, cn 61-084 and served the US Army for 32 years as sn 69-18476. Since 2001 it has been owned and operated by Erickson Air-Crane Inc, as N159AC, who modified it to a S-61F standard. With covid19 sweeping the world we have to keep things in perspective, however after 51 years of service, for this aircraft to end it's days being 'vandalised to probable death' makes me really sad.

Does anyone know where in Chile this has occurred and it is too far from 'civilisation' to be recovered for either repair or parting out for spares?

This is so very sad to see.

In the early 90's I flew 205s out of Trilahue (SE of Concepcion) for three years and saw nothing like this.

We did not wear bullet proof vests and flew whatever routes we thought best.

All of our bases were open to visitors and had no "security" other than us living within 200 yards or so.

We were aware of the Mapuche but they never caused us any problems.

😪for 🇨🇱

S-64F standard, I take it?

Thanks Mike, you are correct, I did indeed mean S-64F standard. I also quoted the cn as 61-084 when it should read 64-084.(I have S-61's on the brain at the moment as I have been working on an S-61L/N project recently.)

Aviation Safety Network shows this incident happened at Santa Juana Helipad, Chile.