Mexican military chopper lands at Laredo.. by mistake

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by UGRev, Aug 7, 2011.


  1. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    Cephus likes this.
  2. Cephus

    Cephus Monkey+++ Founding Member

    I'm pretty sure he had to pass a test to navigate ,at least alittle maybe enough to find a country.
     
  3. toydoc

    toydoc Monkey+++

    Right

    Back when I was in the Navy I landed at Laredo Int and it is soooo different than the Mexican side that only somebody intending to lie would say that they mistook it for Laredo Int. If a pilot flew over Laredo, Tx and mistook it for Nuevo Laredo that pilot is blind and shouldn't be flying.
     
  4. jim2

    jim2 Monkey+++

    Too bad we couldn't have had a gang of rock throwing youths to greet them? Shoe would definitely be on the other foot.

    jim
     
  5. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I would tend to give the chopper pilot the "benefit of doubt" here. Simply because these Mexican Federal Troops are ALL new to this area, and have only been in the area a very few weeks. They do not know the roads, or landscape, and this is early in their rotation. I would also like to see the FAA do a better job of watching our Airspace, as that is VERY flat country, and Radar should cover it easily, and even better if we could just get the Mexicans to use Transponder Codes, on their airborne assets.
     
  6. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    three letters.. GPS. Does that remove doubt?
     
  7. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Do we know that the chopper had GPS on-board?
     
  8. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    Military chopper? ok, lets weigh the likelihood.. I'm thinking there's a good chance that it has GPS. If not, we should invade.. lol.. that last part was a joke.
     
  9. IceNiner

    IceNiner Monkey+

    Of course it had a GPS! Our tax dollars paid for the very best for Mexico's finest.

    Although I did read an article on LEO South of the Border and it was stated that around 70% of the Police Forces there do not even have high school diplomas, let alone any higher education. Maybe it is likely some loosely trained guy who was 'new to the area', kinda dumb but the smartest of the bunch so he got picked to be the heli pilot and his GPS was out that day. In a Rube Goldbergian event like that, then, yes, I could believe this was an 'accident'.;)
     
  10. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    I'd call that an Invasion and a Declaration for War...Bet that will shut down the border...ccc
     
  11. Opinionated

    Opinionated Monkey+

    I'm all for giving the pilot(s) the benefit of the doubt.

    That is I was. Until I checked out Google Earth and Google maps. While in reasonably close proximity to each other in terms of mileage it is crystal clear that a blind pilot flying at night would have been able to tell the two places apart.

    Seriously. Check it out.[monkeyeating]
     
  12. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    All the opinions expressed so far, assumes that the Pilot, had seen the country, and the airports in question, from the AIR, and in daylight, BEFORE the flight, but the News stories do not establish that FACT. .... YMMV....
     
  13. jim2

    jim2 Monkey+++

    I'm an old Air Cav Recon guy, and I can tell you for a fact that quite a few of OUR military pilots can't navigate for shucks. In daylight, at Ft. Hood where they'd been flying for more than a year, they had difficulty getting us within a klick of where we showed them on the map. We always had to have a squad or team leader up front to point out where they should be landing the bird. At night it could be as far as 5 klicks off without help. A lot of the time, they refused to listen and we did some extra walking.

    So, it's entirely possible that this was an accident as the place is flat as a billiard table (few land marks except for the river) if I recall correctly.
    jim
     
  14. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    If that's the case, then I'll buy you're guys a Garmin :)
     
  15. jim2

    jim2 Monkey+++

    The guys I flew with could surely use one!;)
     
  16. jim2

    jim2 Monkey+++

    Back in those days, IFR meant I Follow Roads. No fooling, I heard them say just that.
    jim
     
  17. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    I guess the more interesting question is why the US military didn't jump on him like stink on a skunk. Radar didn't see him? If not, why not? yadda, yadda yadda.
     
  18. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    That is an easy one to answer Ghrit. Simply because, they can't tell the Military flights from any of the Dope Smuggling Planes, coming across the boarder, and Obummer doesn't want to hinder the movement of product. Now if the Mexicans would just turn on their Transponders, (assuming they actually HAVE Transponders) like the American Military does, our guys could see them a whole lot better, and warn them when they are getting close to the boarder....
     
  19. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    right on. See my first post asking how much was hauled off the choppa.
     
  20. Espada

    Espada Monkey+

    River (the only one for 150 miles) + Mexico is on the Southwest of it + USA is on the Northeast side of it. Not an accident.
     
    Mountainman likes this.
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7