Standing Room Only at Base Camp

Normally if you drive past Base Camp, you see no activity. On 11/02/2001, there were four airplanes on the ground, which is four more than I ever saw there. 

Left to right we have a military UV20A/PC-6, military CN-235, a private Cessna Caravan 208, and a private Cessna Caravan 208B. [Thanks to Zipper and Magoo for plane identification.] The PC-6 is a STOL (short take off and landing). The CN-235 is advertised to have STOL capabilities. Both planes are popular with jumpers.

Note the contrail seen in the photograph can be from a commercial jet since there is a commercial air traffic route along route 6. .

From the Scramble database, this tail number corresponds to 95-6039, though at one time it was listed as 85-6039 . The plane is registered to the 427th Special Ops Squadron. The plane appears on the Pilatus website as a PC-6. Click here for their photos and information. Check out pc-6.com for more information about the PC-6 in general.

Both Scramble entries are listed below, but Scramble has dropped the 85-6039 listing, so the assumption is the 95-6039 is the correct listing.

The last sighting of  plane was in Panama City, Florida on Jan 18, 2004. (Airport code PFN) 

These two planes are civilian, with registration numbers N208NN and N403VP.

N208NN:

Serial Number

20800057

Manufacturer Name

CESSNA

Model

208

MFR Year

1985

Type Engine

Turbo-Prop

N403VP:

Serial Number

208B0403

Manufacturer Name

CESSNA

Model

208B

MFR Year

1994

Type Engine

Turbo-Prop

 

Both planes have the same registered "owner".

Registered Owner:

Name

ONE LEASING INC

Street

3511 SILVERSIDE RD STE 105

City

WILMINGTON

State     DELAWARE

Zip Code

19810-4902

This address seems to be very popular. The following owners use the same address:

Southern Transport Inc

Lh Investment & Leasing Inc.

FLOAT DANCER INC

PIG FARM CO

JSZ AVIATION LLC

and others........

All these companies can be traced to http://www.delreg.com/  

Updated information (February 2003):

A Cessna similar to the ones below and owned by One Leasing, crashed in Columbia (South America) on February, 13, 2003.  ABC news checked into One Leasing and found the following (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030213_2127.html ):

The crashed plane's registration number is N1116G, according to the Colombian civil air agency. Records show the plane with that registration number was leased by One Leasing Inc.

Incorporation papers listed AAS Inc. of Hampton, Ga., as the incorporator for One Leasing, but there were no telephone listings in Hampton for the company or the man listed as its president, Ronald B. Powers.

AAS, Inc. is Atlanta Air Salvage, which is based at Griffin-Spalding County Airport (6A2). 

There was much confusion as to who was on-board the airplane. This Washington Post article attempts to "clarify" the situation (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10417-2003Feb14.html):

 A Defense Department official in Washington confirmed the men were civilians employed by the Pentagon as contractors, but added that they were detailed to work for the U.S. Embassy. Typical operations on such flights includes locating and targeting coca plantations for later eradication by Colombian troops. The Washington Post incorrectly reported Friday that the four Americans were civilian contractors employed by the CIA.

The BBC begs to differ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2765203.stm):

US officials said that the men were "civilian specialist contractors", but the BBC correspondent in Bogota says they were believed to be working with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The Associated Press found yet another employer for those on board :

The Americans were contractors for the U.S. military's Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. government officials said in Washington.

Television station KVOA in Tucson, Az. had a bit more information on Mr. Powers:

Incorporation papers listed AAS Inc. of Hampton, Ga., as the incorporator for One Leasing. Ronald B. Powers, the president of AAS, told The Associated Press that the people leasing the plane asked him not to reveal their identities.

Eventually CNN determined who rented the plane (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/02/14/colombia.plane)

The Cessna was contracted by the U.S. Defense Department, officials of the U.S. Southern Command told CNN.

It may be the plane was rented by the DOD, but those in the plane may have had a different employer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2786171.stm) 

Washington is refusing to provide any information on the identity or the jobs of the kidnapped men. But US embassy sources said they were part of the Office of Regional Administration, which they indicated was a CIA front.

Updated information (March 2003)

On March 25, a single engine Cessna 208 crashed in Caqueta, Columbia, looking for those held hostage from the February 13th crash. While reporting this new crash, the employer of those captured in the last crash changed. From Salon magazine (2003/03/26)

The captured Americans were working for California Microwave Systems, a Pentagon contractor. Embassy officials would not say what company employed the three men killed in Tuesday's crash.

Update June 2003

Accident information has now shown up on the net regarding both N116G and the other Cessna 208 (N5521B). Check out http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20030213-0 

Local man held hostage in South America

Jo Rosano never worried about the safety of her son, Marc Gonsalves, during his eight-year career as an Air Force intelligence officer. He spent most of that time on the ground. Only later -- when Gonsalves left the service and began flying drug reconissance missions over Colombia for a private contractor -- did she grow anxious.

"It sounded dangerous," Rosano explains from her Bristol home. "I did not know much about Colombia then, but I knew that they had problems, that his plane could get shot at."

Rosano was right to worry. Last February Gonsalvez and four crewmates of a Cessna light aircraft loaded with spy equipment crash-landed in the rebel-held territory of Colombia's southern Caqueta province.

The close cooperation between the U.S. military and civilian contractors in Colombia is nothing new, says Bill Leogrande, dean of the School of Public Policy at American University and an expert on regional affairs. Washington has long used former U.S. forces to conduct security and military-style operations in Latin America.

"This policy goes back to the Reagan years, Central America and the War Powers Act," says Leogrande. "It's often lucrative for a serviceman to leave his Air Force salary for the private sector. He's basically doing the same work but for much better pay."

That was certainly true in Gonsalves' case. "They were paying him something like $140 thousand a year. He could not believe it," Rosano remembers.

What the government buys, Leogrande says, is political cover when things go wrong.

"This way it's not American servicemen killed or captured in Colombia," says Leogrande.

"What's interesting is how routine this has become," he goes on. "The government certainly gets what it pays for."

Crashes Raise Questions About Use of  Civilians to Do Soldiers' Work

In the late 1990s, the Defense Department wanted a "cost-effective" aerial surveillance program put together for Colombia, Southcom spokesman Stephen Lucas said in a written response to questions.

The contractor and the military settled on a single-engine plane: the Cessna Caravan 208B. Aviation experts say the plane is widely used around the world and has an excellent reliability record.

The desire to keep costs down was one factor in the decision to choose a single-engine plane, former workers in the program say. Single-engine aircraft are cheaper to maintain and to fly than twin-engine planes.

But on a dangerous mission, a single-engine plane can be an Achilles' heel.

Update February 2004

The New York Times (Juan Forero, February 15th, 2004) had a rather long article on the operations in Columbia that dealt partially with these Cessna Caravans. 

The mission of the three men that day, last Feb. 13, was to fly their single-engine Cessna, its underbelly loaded with sophisticated photographic equipment, over vast jungle tracts to search for illegal drug activities and, sometimes, guerrilla movements. The intelligence was then shared with the Colombian armed forces in Washington's two-pronged fight against drug trafficking and a 40-year Marxist insurgency.

Their operation was dubbed the Southcom Reconnaissance System, and Northrop Grumman held the $8.6 million contract for the work.

The pilots knew that if their planes went down, for whatever reason, they were likely to be lost in the nearly impenetrable wilderness. But they said they did not complain, for fear of jeopardizing jobs that paid as much as $150,000 a year.

By 2002, pilots began to worry about what they perceived to be the lack of power and speed of their planes -- the single-engine Cessna Caravan -- for a country as big and mountainous as Colombia.

"Pretty soon you're exceeding your limitations," said another flyer, who added that the $150,000 annual salary motivated pilots to accept increasingly dangerous missions.

Two pilots, Paul C. Hooper and Douglas C. Cockes, wrote letters in November and December of 2002 to Northrop Grumman warning that flying single-engine planes was a recipe for disaster. The letters, first revealed by the Los Angeles Times, suggested that the Cessnas be replaced with twin-engine Beech King Air 300s.

The planes were not replaced, and the two pilots resigned. After the two crashes, which temporarily halted the program, Northrop Grumman resumed the operation under a different name, the Colombia Surveillance System, using twin-engine planes.

All the pilots and crew members had begun working for California Microwave Systems, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. After the first crash, the program was transferred to a newly created company, CIAO Inc., former pilots and family members said.

Efforts to reach CIAO -- which has an office in Maryland, according to documents -- were unsuccessful. Phones were either disconnected or went unanswered.

Now seriously, would you name your CIA black operation CIAO? Homer says doh! The LA Times article (March 27, 2003)  has some information provided by pilot Douglas C. Cockes:

Cockes, a former U.S. Customs pilot with nearly 30 years' experience in drug interdiction missions, said he and fellow pilots orally warned California Microwave Systems in May 2002 that the missions being undertaken by the Cessna 208 put them at greater risk.

That warning was backed up by letters to both the company and parent firm Northrop Grumman in November and December, Cockes said, providing copies to The Times.

The pilots emphasized that the plane had only a single engine and that it had difficulty climbing above 15,000 feet, particularly in the icy conditions often encountered when flying in the Andes.

If the engine failed, they wrote in one letter, the Cessna "could not reach any suitable landing area" in most of the terrain it covered. The planes frequently fly over remote areas where Colombia's soaring mountains, site of most heroin-base crops, meet the vast, unpopulated eastern plains, site of most coca crops.

The Cessna 208, which crashed in February, was flying at 17,000 feet when it had engine trouble, a U.S. Embassy official said.

Update May 2007

An AP story entitled "Colombia Hunts for Rebels' Hostages" (By Joshua Goodman, May 18th) indicates the hostages are still alive. The information was provided Columbian policeman Jhon Frank Pinchao, who escaped from the FARC rebels on April 28th, 2007, after being held for 8 years. 

"Generals we're going to rescue Ingrid Betancourt," said a visibly angered [President Alvaro] Uribe. Moments later he added "and let there be no doubt in the U.S. Congress that we're also going to militarily rescue the FARC's three American hostages."

Uribe was referring to three Northrop Grumman Corp. contractors who were on a drug surveillance mission in Colombia's cocaine-producing southern jungle when their plane crashed on Feb. 13, 2003.

One of the American hostages, Marc Gonsalves, is currently suffering from hepatitis, Pinchao told journalists on Wednesday. According to Lecompte, Pinchao said that in the shorter time he was with the Americans he did not see them being chained like Betancourt because none had attempted to escape.

Sixty Minutes II, "The Forgotten Hostages:

Both N208NN and N403VP are no longer owned by One Leasing. The next owner of N403VP was Pro-Air Leasing, and had the same phony mail drop address in Wilmington Delaware. It has subsequently been transferred to 

WORLDWIDE AVIATION SERVICE LLC
Street 33 S LAST CHANCE GULCH ST
HELENA, MONTANA 59601-4119 

Note that this address in Montana is yet another lawyer's address. Many of the "rendition" aircraft use the same address.

Doing a bit of research, it seems that N403VP has shown up Pope Air Force Base on three occasions.

9/1/2003, the plane departed KSYR (Syracuse Hancock International Airport) to fly to KPOB (Pope Air Force Base)

9/8/2003, the plane departed KPOB (Pope Air Force Base) to fly to KGSO (Piedmonst Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina)

9/17/2003, the plane departed 6A2 (Griffin-Spalding County Airport) for KPOP (Pope Air Force Base)

 N208NN was transferred to  Westwind Air LLC and is no longer assigned.

[Note the "beat girl".]

This tail number corresponds to 96-6049.  Using  the www.scramble.nl database, this plane is also registered to the 427th Special Ops.  Note that the guys near the plane appear to be MIBs. The CN235 is made by Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A., aka CASA. You can find more information here. If the link fails, go to www.eads.net 

Note the "military style" government license plate inset in the next photograph.

Very little information can be found on the 427th SOS (but the "zipper" found some): They are based out of Pope AFB in North Carolina. Their fleet of STOL (of varying degree) airplanes consists of a C212-200, C212-300 ,CN235, and a PC-6. This means half their fleet was at basecamp. [A photo of their c212, serial number 87-0158, can be found here.] The Scramble web site indicates that the 427th SOS reports directly to the Air Force Special Operations Command, though no information on that website indicates the 427th exists.

Andreas Parsch came across this information regarding the 427th SOS from a Freedom of Information Act request:

Hmmh, no mention about training civilians in Cessnas somewhere in the Nevada desert ...

This is a photo of the 427th SOS patch, as found on a collector's  website: