Colombian Air Force T-27 shoots down a GA aircraft carrying drugs

[Tac]

I'm from Colombia and I can tell you that the air force we have is not really trained for air-to-air combat, its mostly ground support.

Training in the FAC is tiered by connections, rank and experience. If you have good connections the pilot can land a commission in the jet cadre (khafirs fighter jets) which automatically jumps his rank up. Its only those pilots that get Air to Air combat training and practice. There's not many jet fighters so not many pilots get to be part of this group.

The rest are prop driven aircraft used for recon, transport and ground support. The Tucano is a ground attack plane and because its prop engines are so reliable and easy to maintain plus it can loiter for a long time its an ideal anti-drug aircraft.

The video shows the drug plane flying low and fast over a hilly amazon jungle area. Chatter constantly mentions distance to border. Spanish chatter in the first pass indicates the first pass is a warning fly-by, the 2nd pass you see the drug plane start to jink and keep flying towards the border and so it was fired upon and hit its fuel. 3rd to 5th passes is the Tucano trying to hit the drug plane as it jinks constantly and tries to hug the terrain.

The tucano pilot I think was more worried about not hitting the ground than hitting the plane.. and his air to air training is likely to be at a basic level. There are some pilots that have been doing drug plane intercepts for years and they're good at it...this guy seems to not be one of them.

[MarineUS]

he may be new

[Sonicblu]

I'd listen to rogwar he is a CIA operative.

[Maverick]

The video was shot through a FLIR. Any idea of the time of day and if that was after dark there? If it was dark then it puts quite a bit more difficulty in tagging that plane.

[Rino]

The ignorance demonstrated in the thread astounds me.

     I feel your pain brother.

[Shane]

The video was shot through a FLIR. Any idea of the time of day and if that was after dark there? If it was dark then it puts quite a bit more difficulty in tagging that plane.

there seems to be a timer in the top right... showing 20:52 - 56 or so and if that's local time, it would put it around 9pm... lighting conditions that time of year in colombia I wouldn't know. 

[Vudu15]

I dont think you would need FLIR if it was daylight at the time of ops, white plane against forest pretty easy to see. I assumed because they were using FLIR it must be dark but Ive never used it so I dont know for certain.

[ElectricOne]

Did you ever think that the SOP was to disable the aircraft and not destroy it?  You are quick with your words and obviously short on thought in your analysis of the situation.  I'd be willing to bet the Colombian pilots are quite professional and are able to hold their own in most situations.  If they really wanted to destroy that aircraft that would have turned it into dust the first attack.  The T-27 pilot simply hung out on the dead 6 of the target and fired a few short burst on multiple setups (I hesitate to call them "passes").  Perhaps they were first trying to force the target down to land, disable it from flying further, etc, etc.

Remember, if you capture the plane, pilot, passengers, and cargo you can do more damage to the cartel's operation than if you simply destroyed/killed them.     

Yeah right.  We will fire a couple of rounds at ya, so that you can safely land on treetops and surrender. ;-)

Firing a machine guns at a civilian aircraft with a wet wing (not necessarily a "wet wing" but definitely without much fuel tank fire protection) is not exactly the same as trying to blow out the tires on a fleeing car with a hand held weapon.

[CAP1]

I know but how hard is it to shoot down a non maneuvering aircraft? Personally I never tried but looking at the thousands of pilots from WWII this should be very easy. I can understand you can miss on the first pass, but 5 passes??    

try it in game sometime. for me at least, it's a LOT easier to hit you when you're trying to not let me hit you, than it is for me to hit you flying straight n level.

 i've seen this vid before.......

so now picking at it.....at 1.56, the tucano looks to be flying formation with him, probably trying to make contact...
at 2.09 looks like he throttles up, and peels up to the left...didn't see any shots fired. probably trying to intimidate the con...
at 2.20 he comes back in from the left rear, and fires.....and hits, as evidenced by the smoke trail as the tucano looks to be doing a high yoyo on the right of the con,.,.....
at 3.09 the tucano fires again.......goes off to the right of the con......
at 3.21 he looks to be doing a close pass again, but couldn't tell if he fired........
AT 3.48, you can see hits scoring on the con......
at 3.53 fire erupts, and at 3.54 he goes boom.

so......all in all, considering they were probably trying to NOT shoot him down, and ended up having to do just that.....pretty dam good job.

[MachFly]

try it in game sometime. for me at least, it's a LOT easier to hit you when you're trying to not let me hit you, than it is for me to hit you flying straight n level.

i've seen this vid before.......

so now picking at it.....at 1.56, the tucano looks to be flying formation with him, probably trying to make contact...

That's a really bad formation, I don't think the pilot of the twin even saw him. T-27 was on his 5O'clock. 1st pass.

at 2.09 looks like he throttles up, and peels up to the left...didn't see any shots fired. probably trying to intimidate the con...

Don't know about Colombia but in the US an abrupt break away maneuver means that your free to go. Does not seem to be a good thing to do when you want to intimidate someone.

at 2.20 he comes back in from the left rear, and fires.....and hits, as evidenced by the smoke trail as the tucano looks to be doing a high yoyo on the right of the con,.,.....

Yes, he shot him. After that the twin continued flying with a fuel leak. 2nd pass

at 3.09 the tucano fires again.......goes off to the right of the con......

Yes, he fired. Don't know if he hit or not. 3rd pass

at 3.21 he looks to be doing a close pass again, but couldn't tell if he fired........

Don't know if he fired or not, but seemed that that's what he was trying to do. 4th pass

AT 3.48, you can see hits scoring on the con......

Yes. 5th pass

at 3.53 fire erupts, and at 3.54 he goes boom.

so......all in all, considering they were probably trying to NOT shoot him down, and ended up having to do just that.....pretty dam good job.

Seems like they were trying to shoot him down from the beginning. I did not see the T-27 do anything to attempt to intercept him.

[MachFly]

Did you ever think that the SOP was to disable the aircraft and not destroy it?  You are quick with your words and obviously short on thought in your analysis of the situation.  I'd be willing to bet the Colombian pilots are quite professional and are able to hold their own in most situations.  If they really wanted to destroy that aircraft that would have turned it into dust the first attack.  The T-27 pilot simply hung out on the dead 6 of the target and fired a few short burst on multiple setups (I hesitate to call them "passes").  Perhaps they were first trying to force the target down to land, disable it from flying further, etc, etc.

Remember, if you capture the plane, pilot, passengers, and cargo you can do more damage to the cartel's operation than if you simply destroyed/killed them.    

What else do you think will happen if you shoot a machine gun at an unarmored aircraft?
If you star burning you can't just stop moving and walk out, if you loose a part of the airplane you can't just stop moving and walk out. You said "Perhaps they were first trying to...disable it from flying further", that's called shooting it down.

[PFactorDave]

False.

LEO's shoot to end the threat.  We do not shoot to kill.  Ever. 

BS.

Police officers are not trained to shoot to wound.  Not trained to shoot the weapon out of the bad guys hand.  Police officers are trained to shoot center mass.  They may not call it shooting to kill, but if it quacks like a duck...

[MachFly]

Shooting it down is a great way to discourage other pilots from being willing to fly drug flights.  I'm sure the aircraft was warned and instructed to maintain a certain flight profile.  When it refused someone in the chain of command ordered the pilot to shoot it down.  If that were an unidentified craft entering US airspace and refusing to follow instructions none of you would be whining that it was shot down instead of just letting it auger into a target of opportunity.  

Lets not paint the Colombian authorities with the 'bad guy' brush.  They've got a long way to go to get their country under control.  Putting a dent in the drug trade is a good start.  

Edit: the twin wasn't maneuvering?  looked like it was doing everything it could to make it to the border without complying with the instructions he had been given at treetop level and off radar.  Nicely done in my book.

You compare it to an unidentified aircraft entering US airspace, in this case the aircraft was leaving Colombian airspace therefore it was not an immediate threat.

You call a couple of turns maneuvering? I recommend you watch a few videos from WWII where you have aircraft doing real maneuvers (not just changing direction) in order not to get shot down.



Just for the record I don't think anyone is calling Columbian Air Force the bad guys. I just said that it seemed like a wrong thing to do.

[MachFly]

Do you not think that if the guy can afford/steal a plane that he isn't a threat?
Ignorance = Bliss.

First, what makes you think he stole that aircraft?
Second, are you saying that anyone who can afford to buy an aircraft is a threat?  

[ElectricOne]

BS.

Police officers are not trained to shoot to wound.  Not trained to shoot the weapon out of the bad guys hand.  Police officers are trained to shoot center mass.  They may not call it shooting to kill, but if it quacks like a duck...

What he is saying is that they never shoot for a purpose of "stopping suspect's life." (They do not shoot to wound either.) They shoot to stop an "immediate threat." The most effective way to accomplish this (in other words: the quickest way to stop the suspect from being a threat) is to fire a series of shots into the center of mass. Unfortunately, very often it causes fatal injuries (da...) but killing is NOT the purpose of shooting. Shooting to kill is an execution, and execution first requires trial.