Tucano T-27 shooting down drug dealers
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHDZqUa0m1s

Is this the right forum for this subject?[sm=omg_smile.gif]

No

Ya know.. i'm all for the fight against the drug lords.. BUT as a pilot who works for a company that frequently does low level survey work over the amazon. This really makes me think twice about going out on one of those jobs. All it takes is one screw up in paperwork or mis-communication and i could be in something like this...

Now.. that being said, if they had undeniable proof that it was a drug runner. Im still not sure what my answer would be.

What about due process?

Looks like this was filmed at night, if so i dont think he was surveying

that is true.. we also do 300' AGL night stuff as well wearing NVG's.

Interesting video, but what does this have to do with RC jets?

Can we do this some place else?

Bob

what does this have to do with RC models much less jets???

Thread moved to the Off Topic - Planes/Helis forum

Ken

We don't know the whole story.

If they are 100% positive the plane is carrying illegal drugs, then I'd say it was a justifiable shootdown.

If they weren't 100% sure, then they could have simply followed the plane, made communication with the plane or even forced it down at an airport. Seams a pretty bold move to take somebody's life without being sure.

But, we don't know all the details.

Should have been allowed to land ? Does it look like he was going to land and give up ? You heard the American controllers. There are big advantages to conducting these operations down there. The biggest being the lack of due process. Find them, shoot them. Thats why we go there. At least this operation was conducted to stop criminal activity. Thats a high water mark for American activity in most regions.

It was pretty obvious this pilot was only interested in getting out of there not in cooperating with the chase plane.
It was very justifiable, maybe the next pilot will think twice before undertaking to deliver illegal drugs.
I am freaking tired of the bleading hearts liberals trying to protect the criminals who are killing and mainming the youth that we are dependent on for the future of our society.
Good Job,
KW_Counter

Looks like this video serves as a great example...

American contractors participating in foreign para military operations committing murder. Wouldn't it be easier to just murder the people buying instead?

No it would not. To stop just about any problem it must be stopped at the source.
That was much closer to the source than waiting for it to get to the users.
From the tape I'm not sure we helped or just monitored the situation.
I'm glad the situation was stopped. I hope it sends a good message.
I hope it happens many more times.
KW_Counter

How about enforcing our border laws to stop the drug flow? Must be a reason why they don't. Still I think if you just hire Mexican and Colombia contractors to come over here and kill the users that would solve the problem. Easier too. Most of them are unarmed Americans 14-42 years old.

Looks like the guy was making a run for the border im sure if he wanted to land
he could have, OTOH im not sure trying to stop drugs at the source does much
good because as long as there is a demand for somthing someone will always
find a way to bring it to the customer.

Gee, ThunderbirdJunkie thought that's what the Coast Guard and Nat'l Guard did.

If you wait for it to be a couple miles from our border, then it is too late. Stop it at the source, like KW_Counter said. If they don't listen to a guy in a plane with guns on it, chances are they're doing something illegal.

Calling somebody shooting down a plane a murderer...

So, would not anybody transporting drugs, which kill people, also be a murderer? and God only knows how many people they've killed

How would you suggest enforcing the border laws? (Effectively) We try to be the good guys and turn back the illegals crossing the fence, they just wander down a couple of miles and try again. We deport or jail the ones who come in and are then caught, filling our jails and sucking up our (YOUR) tax money keeping them warm and fed. And still they come in. The only really effective way to enforce the border laws is to crank up Ma Deuce when you see them coming over the line. They know the risks.

I think the rotten bas***ds in the twin got just what was coming to them, may all the others like them crash and burn. Give the Tucano guy a medal for his trouble. If you watched closely, he almost mid-aired the twin when it turned into him once.


Hey, I got an idea. Why not round up all the people who buy drugs and ship them off to wherever the drugs came from. It makes it easier for them to find the stuff, and the druglords save on transportation costs.

We could at least try to enforce the laws. Even the ones that make it illegal to hire illegals. I can think of 2,136 other laws that are not enforced involving illegals. If it wasn't for a cop stopping me I would go to the border and enforce the laws. Unfortunately that would stop the flow of drugs into this country and they would have to start manufacturing here again. Can't have that especially with the war on drugs going so well in Mexico. While the little prop job with about 2,000 lbs of product was being shot down tons of it were being transported on the ground. After the murder of the baby and mother who were shot down in a identical mission/theater I quit. Two of the pilots and one sensor operator were indited for murder in another mistake that killed at least 30 civilians (Colombia)(Airscan).

Grass and Meth are the only two of the Big Four that can actually be manufactured here, if you include being grown as "manufactured". Climate and open environment isn't good for opium or coca on a large enough scale to make it a worthwhile risk.
The real "problem children" are Meth and Cocaine. Meth doesn't require the import of anything from abroad to manufacture, but the tightening of controls on basic ingredients in the US has begun an increase in meth smuggling across our borders, using the same systems developed over years by the cocaine and marijuana smugglers.

Al this is really moot, the subject is whether it's okay to go after each and every small plane coming in at treetop level, or every little hidden stash in spare tires of vehicles crossing borders, or the tunnels going under the borders, etc. I think it is, and we need to be especially ruthless, if for no other reason than to show how serious we really are. These people aren't so stupid they don't know it's illegal, they should understand that the risks and penalties can be fatal in a sudden and ugly way. There WILL be collateral damage as you mention, with innocents paying the price. What the news likes to pounce on, though, is the instances of our mistakes, taking out someone who wasn't actually doing something wrong and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What the news doesn't show, or tends to minimize, is the much greater toll of innocents both here and abroad from the smugglers themselves in the pursuit of getting their product to market any way they can.

Personally, I have doubts that we can contain the problem regardless of what we do. We are sticking our fingers in widespread holes in the dike, and we don't have nearly enough fingers, but we need to do what we can. To give up, say the heck with it, is to admit defeat.

I have dealt with some of these people (drug sellers, smugglers, etc) who have seen the inside of our penal system. By and large, they have no moral conscience, which , to me, puts them several rungs below those who doon the "human ladder".

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox. Everyone is going to feel a little (or a lot) differently on this subject. I think it was a righteous shoot.

I am not certain that they intended for the plane to crash, for some time, it looks like that they were only trying to disable it to force it to land.