Mexican Helicopter Lands in Laredo, Tx by Mistake

[PinkhamR]

Are these guys using maps from a Cracker Jack box or what?

Mexican military helicopter lands in Laredo by mistake | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7686830.html


A Mexican military helicopter landed Saturday afternoon at Laredo International Airport by mistake, said a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Mucia Dovalina, the uniform public affairs officer for the Laredo Port of Entry, said the helicopter landed about 3 p.m., but she couldn't share details such as the number of occupants or whether they were armed.

Dovalina said that, following protocol, CBP officers checked out the helicopter's occupants, then allowed them to return to Mexico in the aircraft.

"The only thing that I can tell you is that they did land here," she said. "It was by mistake. They were processed and they were returned to Mexico."

According to a statement from CBP, the pilot mistook the airport for a landing strip in Nuevo Laredo.

This is the latest such incursion that officials have called inadvertent as the Mexican military increases troop deployments in northeastern Mexico.

In July, a convoy of soldiers rolled across the international bridge at Donna and were processed by customs and sent back across.

The Mexican military announced last week that it had wrapped up an operation called "Lince Norte," or Northern Lynx.

The 20-day assault on the Zetas drug trafficking organization used 4,000 Mexican troops, deployed mostly in states bordering Texas.

The operation resulted in the death of the Zeta who controlled Nuevo Laredo and the arrest of a man the military says is a "national level" financier for the gang.



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[Trlsmn]

Probably just the Mexican military smuggling drugs for the cartels.

 

[pcoast]

Complete and utter bullbubblegum. Trlsmn's answer is more believable than the news report.

 

[moose]

I know of aircraft that landed on the freeway instead of Albany but there is either more to this or these guys shouldnt be piloting a paper airplane.

Quetzalcoatl International has 1 runway, Larado's has 3 and is next to a big lake.

 

[One-Eyed Ross]

Hmmm....perhaps they are testing the response time of incursions by Mexican military into the US...perhaps as payback for "Fast and Furious?"

 

[ejmpnu92]

I clicked on the link....gone. Grand conspiracy? Wonder if it was really Mexican Military or disguised Cartel people? Wonder how much powder they were carrying? Am I being to cynical?

 

[Navvet]

Having served in Laredo, it is an easy mistake, but like many other things, it probably was not. Wonder how many people in the helo claimed political asylum? Didnt tell us that did they?

 

[olydemon]

Maybe they were picking up another order of guns that were backordered from "Operation Fast and Furious"?

 

[MA Duce]

Probably just the Mexican military smuggling drugs for the cartels.

Yeah, you leave fuel behind to carry more product, drop in in the bush then land by mistake to get enough to make it back home......or am I just cynical??? To think a military pilot, even one from Mexico, could make a rudimentary mistake like that is a little hard to swallow.

 

[carracer]

What happened to our Radar defenses? Were they not seeing them fly across the border? We can scramble Air Force jets for a drunk on a Delta flight, but, not an unauthorized aircraft from a foriegn country?

 

[Fishnutz]

What happened to our Radar defenses? Were they not seeing them fly across the border? We can scramble Air Force jets for a drunk on a Delta flight, but, not an unauthorized aircraft from a foriegn country?

Seems to me the mexicant military is seeing how low our radars pick up, and testing our response time.

 

[Dieselfuel12v]

Considering the cartels are deep in the military, I wouldn't put anything past them.

 

[hermannr]

Give the guys a break. I remember when I was in the US Army, in Germany, with the Pershing Missile system (nuclear). we had a young LT as convoy commander that took a whole convoy of Pershing Missles right into Hof (right on the East German Border) Those missiles, and none of the personell were ever supposed to be any closer than 5k to that border. It took them two days to get those missiles out of Hof and caused quite a diplomatic mess.

I was in that convoy, and when we hit the exit to the training area I broke convoy and took the rest of the convoy into the Grafenwöhr training area instead of on up to Hof. In the Army it is an absolute no-no to break convoy, but I got my second ArCom from the brigade commander for doing so. The LT got relieved of his duties.

When these guys get back to Mexico, some (young?) officer will burn for this...believe me.

 

[coastal steelheader]

Seems to me the mexicant military is seeing how low our radars pick up, and testing our response time.

Or probing our security. If these guys aren't above working for the cartels, then who else are they willing to work for?