U.S. spray plane used in drug war reported missing in Bahamas

Naples Daily News, AP ^ | Wednesday, October 3, 2001 | JAIME HERNANDEZ

[Terrorista Nada]

U.S. spray plane used in drug war reported missing in Bahamas

U.S. spray plane used in drug war reported missing in Bahamas

Wednesday, October 3, 2001

By JAIME HERNANDEZ, Associated Press

MIAMI — A State Department plane used to spray crops in the drug war in Colombia was missing in the Bahamas Tuesday, having disappeared while on a flight to Florida for maintenance.

At least seven U.S. Coast Guard, Air Force and State Department aircraft were searching for the Ayres S2RHG-T65, which was last in contact with air traffic controllers at 10:20 a.m. Monday. A Coast Guard cutter and Bahamian vessels were involved in the search in occasional stormy weather.

The single-engine plane, which carried only the pilot, took off early Monday from Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a dependent territory of the United Kingdom located southeast of the Bahamas. It was en route to Patrick Air Force Base, on Florida's East Coast south of Cape Canaveral.

Its last known location was about 120 miles southeast of Freeport, Grand Bahama, according to a Coast Guard statement. Freeport is about 75 miles east of West Palm Beach.

"Its last contact was with FAA air traffic controllers in Miami," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Christopher White.

Chris Lloyd, director of the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association, said the pilot told the controllers that he was encountering bad weather and looking for a place to land. White said he could not confirm Lloyd's report.

The plane is being used by the State Department in the anti-drug effort in Colombia, said agency spokesman Richard Boucher.

"It was coming up from Colombia, being ferried up," Boucher said in a Washington news briefing.

The plane's spray pumps were pulled before the aircraft left Colombia, and tanks were filled with fuel for 12 hours of flying time, Boucher said.

Frederick Jones, another State Department spokesman, said there was "no reason to believe there was any criminal intent involved" in the disappearance.

"We are treating this matter as a search-and-rescue," he said.

Copyright © 2001 Naples Daily News. All rights reserved.
Published in Naples, Florida. A Scripps newspaper.

[Terrorista Nada]

More info about this very unusual missing crop duster: Combat Crop Dusters

[MJY1288]

Here is a pic of our "Terrorist Buster"

[readyourhistory]

It's probably stuffed to the hilt with 15 mexicans and 30 lbs of coke headed towards Miami as we speak. :)

[beekeeper]

Old news. Lots of posts on this, including radio reports. last I heard, no terrorist connection.

[eno_]

Ummmmmmm, the anthrax letters had "no terror connection" for a while there, too. Yeah it's possible it just went down. But Florida + Atta (and buddies) + cropduster + timing is just way too many coincidences.

[Terrorista Nada]

The FBI states the above incidents "are unrelated and isolated, and are not connected to 9-11 terrorist attacks." I am amazed at the closed-mindedness of some of you Freeperts so far. Just because there's a law against something, or the press or government says it can't be done, doesn't make it so.

The keyword so far in the domestic terrorist attack on the U.S.A. is "ASYMMETRIC WARFARE." A possible Doomsday scenario...

For our webTV Freepers:
http://www.dslextreme.com/users/surferslim/cropdust.html

Wake up people, we may have up to 50,000 Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in our country now thanks to Bill Clinton, Doris Meissner, and the 1990's Immigration and Naturalization Service.

[Terrorista Nada]

Very funny picture :)

[steveo]

STILL MISSING???

[Terrorista Nada]

BTW, I understand that an F-16 might have a very difficult time finding and destroying this AY-65... in fact, could itself be destroyed.

[Terrorista Nada]

Yep, the U.S. State Department AY-65 crop duster is still missing as far as I can determine.

[Terrorista Nada]

Reportedly, this aircraft has been used in Burma, Thailand, Columbia, Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (and a probability exists that it was used covertly in Afghanistan to spray opium poppy crops).

[Terrorista Nada]

...also Cuba.

[Terrorista Nada]

Usama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist group has infiltrated the U.S. Army Special Forces and Delta Force for the last 10 years.

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=ALIMOHAMED-10-24-01&cat=AN

Anthrax is the perfect bio-weapon because it cannot be traced because only 5 genetic variants are known and they all occur naturally all over the globe. But this is weapons grade anthrax, notwithstanding the lies being told by the press, some medical people (the CDC), and some politicians. It is weaponized because of its small size (1 to 3 microns) and it airborne mobility capacity.

[Terrorista Nada]

"It's probably stuffed to the hilt with 15 mexicans and 30 lbs of coke headed towards Miami as we speak. :)"

... or other white powder (in a 400 gallon saline liquid) ... and there is a good likelihood if it's headed for the west coast it is in Mexico right now.

[Terrorista Nada]

So far one letter to Tom Daschle has 10,000 people taking Cipro at the direction of the U.S. government. This intercepted message seems to indicate that possibly 30 anthrax letters were sent by Usama bin Laden to terrorists cells throughout U.S.

This all could snowball in less than 10 days, as each anthrax letter is remailed across the U.S.A.

Intercepted 9-11 message: Terrorists " sent 30."

For WebTV Freepers:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/10/02/inv.intercept.call/index.html

[Terrorista Nada]

"Old news. Lots of posts on this, including radio reports. last I heard, no terrorist connection."

I found 9 posts using the key words "crop duster", is there a specified limit per topic?

I also read that the F.B.I. is now saying, "these incidents are unrelated and isolated, and are not connected to 9-11 terrorist attacks."

If this is really true, why is the F.B.I. asking airports in Mississippi if any crop duster type aircraft with the FAA "N-number" of "N..90 something," which is a known U.S. State Department AY-65 crop duster registry number?

[Terrorista Nada]

er... If this is really true, why is the F.B.I. asking airports in Mississippi if any crop duster type aircraft with the FAA "N-number" of "N..90 something" has landed and refueled? This registry number is in the known range of registry numbers of the U.S. State Department AY-65 crop duster registry numbers.

This very unusual U.S. State Dept. "Black Ops" AY-65 aircraft would be a perfect ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE weapon.

[Terrorista Nada]

"STILL MISSING???"

Still missing.

[eno_]

The anti-drug verion of this crop duster has a powerful engine and is hardened against small arms fire, but I do not think the gun on an F16 would have any trouble shredding one of these. The Ayers is darn quick for a prop plane, but still would be very slow compared with an F16. The main problem the speed causes is that the plane has plenty of places to hide. It can probably land on almost anything - a beach, the dessert, any road in the boonies. It can also be configured to carry fuel in the spray tanks for really long range. Of course this would have to be reconfigured for a mission. This thing will be a mofo to find. It would be VERY BAD if it has ECM on board.

It DOES make me nervous that bin Laden has such an obsession with aviation, and has obviously spent some time thinking of clever ways to cause mass casualties with aircraft.

Any word on the pilot? He would have to have been attacked on the ground.

[Terrorista Nada]

Another unusual fact is that "the tanks were filled with fuel for 12 hours flying time."

This would indicate that external fuel tanks were added, because the normal range of this aicraft is 1,036 miles (2,015 miles with external tanks).

But why would they add these external tanks for 12 hours of flying time for a 3 hour - 450 mile flight from the Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands to Patrick AFB in Melborne, Florida? Why haven't they provided any pilot ID? Why is the FBI asking about similar FAA "N-numbers" in the Mississippi spraying incidents which now have been dismissed as "just misunderstandings" and now really didn't happen? And why were they so concerned about crop dusters anyway after 9-11?

Something isn't right.