Crippled Cocaine Plane Makes Desert Landing

A disabled twin-engine plane carrying a load of cocaine landed near a remote desert pumping station today, a sheriff’s sergeant said.

The Cessna 414 contained five or six duffel bags of what appeared to be about 500 pounds of uncut cocaine, said Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Wardlaw of the Blythe substation.

Authorities said they were unable to locate any occupants of the plane, which landed half a mile from a Metropolitan Water District pumping station on the Colorado River Aqueduct. Each pumping station on the aqueduct, which carries water from the river to Southern California, has its own private airstrip that MWD employees use when working at the remote sites, MWD spokesman Bob Gomperz said.

U.S. Customs Service spokesman Jerome Hollander said in Los Angeles that customs agents had been called in, but he would give no details.

“There was a crash. We’re looking into it,” he said.

Gomperz said MWD personnel were told the plane had Mexican registration and “appeared to have landing gear problems” when it came down on the landing strip about five miles north of the town of Desert Center on Interstate 10, about 160 miles east of Los Angeles.

“It was abandoned,” Gomperz said of the plane. “There wasn’t anyone around” when officials arrived.

Sheriff’s deputies from the Blythe station were dispatched to the remote location shortly after the 6:15 a.m. incident.

Riverside County Fire Capt. Bob Ingram said there was a fire in the plane but it was out when crews arrived.