Police officer taking aout the wing of a small aircraft with his car.

[MachFly]

Aircraft damaged, but absolutely not destroyed, and criminals apprehended.

No, the airplane was completely destroyed, it's not flying after that. I guess if you really want to restore it you could but it would be a lot cheaper to buy a new one. To restore it you'd need to replace the wing, replace the whole wing spar, replace the gear, replace the prop, do an engine overhaul, and that's if you get lucky.

Sure the guy was fast thinking, but certainly not smart thinking.

[MachFly]

Also I'd like to remind you guys that that wing is full of fuel, and I'm pretty sure it's not self sealing.

Putting all the risks together, that cop was lucky.

[SmokinLoon]

MachFly seems to be the resident expert on the use of force.     Perhaps he has lots of experience in the use of force, or was educated in the use of force, or perhaps is just highly opinionated on the matter???  Or perhaps he knows what happened prior to the video, or what the history was of the known pilot, or owner of the aircraft, or he knew that the passengers of the aircraft were nuns from the local charity?

MachFly just seems to be able to judge from afar, know all the details, and is righteous in his decisions.  Anyone else notice this?   

[Shuffler]

So if someone buys something using stolen money that something can be destroyed? If a 100K plane is no big loss for you, great, I don't have such money to just throw out.

lol Why in the world are you worried about the plane?

It was not yours.

[Flipperk]

Also I'd like to remind you guys that that wing is full of fuel, and I'm pretty sure it's not self sealing.

Putting all the risks together, that cop was lucky.

Spilling fuel does not self ignite, it needs an ignition source. They were on dirt terrain and the chances of the plane catching on fire were slim, the fuel cell probably never even got compromised and the engine was still elevated off of the ground. Remember these planes are built to crash, if the force of the car ramming the wing was strong enough for the wing to break away, it would have but it did not...the fuel cell most likely was still intact.

Cops do things to stop criminals, sometimes life threatening, it is all part of the job. You are critical of the actions taken by law enforcement... they have $150K in goods, probably in a stolen/illegally owned plane...they made the plane un-flyable, recovered the stolen goods, and arrested 5 criminals. 5 criminals that would probably do much worse as time goes on...

...I think it was worth it.

[mechanic]

Awesome footage.

Take that bad guys.

[icepac]

That airplane was not flying again.

Some of it's parts may.

IcePac........A&P

[Dinan]

MachFly seems to be the resident expert on the use of force.

MachFly just seems to be able to judge from afar, know all the details, and is righteous in his decisions.  Anyone else notice this?   

He knows all because he  has a private ticket and captains a light twin.  This makes him an expert on all things aviation related.

[SmokinLoon]

He knows all because he  has a private ticket and captains a light twin.  This makes him an expert on all things aviation related.

He may know the aircraft, but he doesn't know jack about that specific situation and he certainly didn't take in to account the collateral damage that the baddies have done or would have done in the future.  He certainly has no clue what happened prior to the video, who the pilot and passengers were, or anything else.  All he brought up ultimately was the US$ "value" of the aircraft.

Last but not least, hindsight is always 20/20.  That LEO did what he thought he needed to do to stop the plane from taking off.  Maybe he didnt know the wing would snap, maybe he was trying to get it to veer off.  We don't know.  Point is, in all situations, and I mean is ALL situations hold fast to your tongues especially if you've not ever been in *that* guys shoes ... AND... if you were not there.       

I have my Class II, does that make me an expert???  58 hours total between a Cesspool 150 and 172.  I guess I can call all the shots now too, eh???     

[MutleyBR]

Hi all!

It happened in Brasil, my home country.

The driver says "Donīt shoot! Donīt shoot! Am gonna hit the wing!"

They wanted to arrest the pilot to extract more information. The pilot and other 4 guys were arrested. One of them had been prviouly arrested for robbing armored value transport vehicles.

Police had been monitoring them for about a month. They had been smuggling drugs and other things from Paraguay.

Itīs very difficult to monitor Brazilian western borders with other countries due to its extension, terrain(tropical jungle and rivers and marshes) and lack of cooperation with some of their authorities.

Usually electronics, and other things, specially firearms and drugs(not a main producer, but used as  alternate route). Drugs come mostly from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. Notice that Paraguay has no sea access, so other countries must be involved in the process...

A good example of anti drugs operations cooperation. US "advisors", Colombian Air Force pilots, operating a Brazilian made airplane(F-16īs and F-18īs are too fast for the job), intercepting drug loaded airplane heading for Brasil, over Colombian air space.

They bring drugs in planes from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru into Brazilian Amazon. Once in Brasil. they transport it in boats then land vehicles to distribution centers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuxk4q15PQc

South America Map:

http://www.guiageo-americas.com/mapas/americasul-politico.htm

Brazilian Air Force Super Tucanos intercepting unauthorized traffic over Brazilian air space:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofd9d7mMkTg&feature=related
 
We are also using Brazilian made radar planes, and for the moment, imported UAV's.

As we have the Olympic games, and World Soccer Cup games ahead, weīd better start worrying with a far worse problem, terrorism...


Take care all!

Mutley 

[curry1]

MachFly I'd say he made the right decision.  Using a pit maneuver on the plane would have been dangerous for the five occupants that most certainly would have ground-looped and flipped the plane completely destroying it.  Contrary to what you may believe those law enforcement officers do not want to kill anybody which is the same reason that he didn't drive up and shoot the pilot.  All that does is give them a reason to shoot back at you which they wouldn't want either.  Shooting the tires may have worked possibly but shooting leaning out the side of a window of car at high speed doesn't seem safe, and depending on the plane it may not have mattered it could have took off anyway.

Also it not like pitting the plane or shooting at it would be less likely to set it on fire compared to ramming the plane itself.  First I think you don't care about the lives of the passengers of the plane and then you are worried about the fuel in the wings.  Are you just arguing for the sake or arguing or what?

[MachFly]

My problem is that the cop used a suicidal maneuver to stop the plane. He could have done it with less damage to the plane and a lot less risk to himself. I'm not questioning whether he should have been stopped or not, so I don't need to know what happened before it.

It was not yours.

They could have just gave it to me instead of destroying it.

[icepac]

All he had to do was ping the rudder/elevator.

Those surfaces can be wiped out by a fat person walking into them.

[zack1234]

Planes are devices of the devil

If we were meant to fly we would have been given wing

[Flipperk]

My problem is that the cop used a suicidal maneuver to stop the plane. He could have done it with less damage to the plane and a lot less risk to himself. I'm not questioning whether he should have been stopped or not, so I don't need to know what happened before it.


They could have just gave it to me instead of destroying it.

It wasn't a suicidal maneuver...your over reacting.