Readiness of Copter Crew for Mission Is Questioned

The crew of the National Guard helicopter that crashed into the Imperial County desert this week lacked the law enforcement training and flight preparation necessary to safely conduct the kind of anti-smuggling mission they were undertaking at night, several private and law enforcement helicopter pilots say.

Pilots for the U. S. Customs Service, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Astrea division and two private helicopter companies said they believed the National Guard crew was ill-prepared to attempt the kind of nighttime maneuver that led to their fiery deaths, as well as those of five sheriff’s deputies aboard the aircraft.

“These folks aren’t trained specifically for this,” said John Underwood, operations officer for the Aviations Operations Center-West of the U. S. Customs Service.

“There is a great difference between law enforcement work and doing military assaults,” said Underwood, who added that his agency was never consulted about the flights. “You’ve got to say they were slightly out of their realm by doing this.”

National Guard officers have defended their decision to launch the ill-fated flight this week, but said Thursday that they were considering changes to give their pilots more time to study the areas in the daytime that they will be asked to fly at night for drug interdiction.

The UH-1H helicopter was on its maiden anti-drug mission Monday night when it made a pass through a remote canyon, clipped static lines strung 20 feet above 500,000-kilowatt transmission lines, and hurtled into a hillside about 63 miles east of San Diego. Killed in the fiery accident were the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Geoffrey L. Nett, his two crewmen and five sheriff’s deputies from the departments of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Imperial counties.

National Guard officers said that Nett had worked as a drafting and architecture teacher with the Corona-Norco Unified School District before joining the National Guard full time as an instructor pilot in 1986. He had served four years of active duty with the Army, and his only overseas tour was in Korea in 1972 and 1973.

The fatal flight was part of Operation Border Ranger, a secret anti-drug program created by a consortium of six Southern California sheriff’s departments. The helicopter was one of three loaned to the consortium by the National Guard for a one-week aerial blitz against smugglers moving drugs from Mexico across rural stretches of San Diego and Imperial counties.

Suspected Vehicle Was From Border Patrol

Authorities have said the helicopter made the pass through the canyon to close in on a parked car believed to belong to a suspected drug smuggler. The vehicle actually belonged to a Border Patrol unit that was watching the canyon for illegal aliens. Imperial County Sheriff’s Lt. Kenneth Koon said the helicopter had made two safe passes through the canyon before coming back for a third pass when the crash occurred.

Underwood said the decision by Nett and his crew to close in on the vehicle reflected their military flight training, which allows for confrontation of the enemy.

Given the same situation, he said, a Customs pilot trained in law enforcement flying would have relied more on the element of surprise, opting not to make the pass through the canyon and scare away the suspect with the sound of the helicopter blades. Instead, he would likely retreat out of earshot and call in patrol cars to make the arrest, Underwood said.

“It’s got to boil down to just senses, what you have been trained to do,” Underwood said. “One thing that comes to mind, helicopter-wise, is sometimes you just don’t blatantly go in, whereas in the Army you just go in.”

“I’ve been in many arrest situations where we go in on the bad guy and we tell the helicopter to wait five miles away. . . . You just don’t go hard-charging in,” Underwood said.

Especially Dangerous at Night

Apart from the decision to pass through the canyon, other helicopter pilots said, the aerial blitz was especially risky because Nett and his crew were not familiar enough with the terrain to be flying over it by night.

“All areas are dangerous at night, in my estimation, especially when you are not familiar with the area,” said Lt. George Kneeshaw, commander of the San Diego County sheriff’s helicopter detail. “We make it a practice in our agency that nobody flies at night until they’ve flown a long time in that area in the daytime.

“I would say that those guys probably had a lot of training in mountain flying. . . ,” Kneeshaw said. “But, in addition to that, you have to be familiar with the area that they were in. Every area has its own obstacles.”

Mel Cain, who operates Skydance Helicopters at Gillespie Field in El Cajon, said he has flown over the area of the crash many times.

“Myself, I know that area fairly well and, boy, I don’t think you’d catch me in there at night, unless it was really an emergency,” Cain said.

“I think that an area such as that, when you know that there are high-power lines going through it, you should certainly fly the area in the daylight before you ever think about going in there at night,” he said.

‘Bottom Line’ for Safety

Ivor Shier, vice president of Flight Trails Helicopter, based at Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, added: “The bottom line is we just don’t go and fly around mountains and valleys at night without a good knowledge of where we are flying. And you don’t go flying in the shadows of mountains.”

To guarantee safety, Shier said, pilots for his company are trained to maintain altitude over mountaintops, particularly because of the threat of wires.

“At night, it’s a whole different story,” Shier said. “How can you see at night? You can’t. The secret to flying in mountainous terrain at night is to have plenty of altitude.”

Maj. Steve Mensik, a National Guard spokesman, said the guard considered Nett and his crew fully capable of fulfilling the night mission.

“We wouldn’t have had a night flight if we weren’t comfortable with the skills of the pilot and what we thought we were going to encounter,” he said. “We don’t put people in harm’s way.”

Mensik said that Nett and his crew early Monday took a two-hour aerial tour of the 30-mile stretch along the international border to familiarize themselves with it before their shift later that night.

Familiarization Flight

“All of the crew members, early Monday, flew from the Imperial Beach airport to Yuma, Ariz. and back to the San Diego County borderline, and then back to the Imperial County airport,” Mensik said.

“What gets real difficult to answer is did they overfly that particular spot where the accident occurred? And I don’t know the answer to that one,” said Mensik, who added that Nett and his crew were not at the helicopter controls during the aerial tour.

Although earlier reports said the crew was equipped with night vision goggles at the time of the accident, Mensik said the crew was not wearing the goggles.

Mensik said the full moon that illuminated the mountains at the time made the goggles useless, because they work better “in a zero light environment.” However, even with the goggles, Nett would not have been able to see the static line stretched above the electrical transmission tower, he added.

Mensik said the planners are considering ways to improve radio contact between National Guard helicopters and cooperating law enforcement agencies on the ground. Although the Border Patrol was part of Operation Border Ranger, there was no communication between the ill-fated helicopter and the Border Patrol vehicle at the bottom of the canyon, authorities have said.

‘Disappointed’ at Late Notice

Underwood of the Customs Service said Thursday that his agency, which flies regularly along the international border, was not informed about the anti-drug blitz until Friday--late notice that Underwood said was “disappointing” to him.

“We don’t want someone out there doing the same thing we’re doing when we don’t know they are there,” Underwood said. “Obviously, that can become messy.”

Underwood said Operation Border Ranger, which was temporarily suspended, will include the Customs Service in its next planning session. Customs, along with the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration, are the primary federal agencies charged with stopping the flow of drugs across the border.

Meanwhile, the National Guard announced Thursday that it has requested 33 more helicopters from the Defense Department to use in the border war against drugs. Mensik said the requisition includes 18 AH-64 Apache attack aircraft that are equipped with infrared, forward-looking radar. The sophisticated craft are equipped with television cameras attached to the helmets of the two-man crew that allow them to look through fog and clouds. The Apache can stay in the air five hours before refueling.

Guard officials have also asked for 12 OH-58D observation craft that cruise at about 150 knots and three UH-60 Blackhawk transport helicopters. The Blackhawks can carry about 12 men besides the crew and cruise at about 150 knots.