Craft was on mission to destroy drug crops. A U.S. government plane that crashed over the weekend while on an anti-drug mission, killing the pilot, was apparently shot down, a spokesman for a U.S. company said yesterday. The U.S. State Department has sent a statement to DynCorp, a U.S. government contractor, saying “preliminary information indicates the aircraft was struck by hostile ground fire,” company spokesman Chuck Wilkins said in a telephone interview. The pilot, a Costa Rican citizen named Mario Alvarado, was killed in Sunday’s crash of the OV-10 plane in northeast Colombia, Wilkins said. DynCorp, based in Reston, Va., is contracted by the State Department to fumigate cocaine-producing crops in Colombia using State Department aircraft. Alvarado worked for a second U.S. company subcontracted by DynCorp but that asked not to be named, Wilkins said. Alvarado was the sixth U.S. government contractor to be killed in Colombia this year. A Colombian army commander said the anti-narcotics offensive in which Alvarado was participating will continue until all drug crops in the region have been fumigated. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.