Another American Drug Plane Down in Honduras

Another American plane loaded with narcotics landed in Honduras yesterday.  The plane landed near Limones at a dirt landing strip on someone's farm, a strip the owner reportedly thought he had disabled.  It landed at night, with the strip lighted by a generator, and unloaded its drugs into waiting pickup trucks.  The plane was then burned.

Sources differ about the registration of the plane.  International sources, like Terra.com, report the plane was Venezuelan, while El Heraldo and others report it to be American. El Heraldo is the only source to give a putative  registration number:  N895AC.  The incinerated plane appears to have the same paint details as N895AC as depicted in this picture.

This is a Beech King Air C90 manufactured in 1995, with American registration N895AC.  The plane, which is registered for normal use, is listed as belonging to Unisource Holding, Inc., with a Miami address of a luxury condo.  It can carry over 12,000 lbs of cargo. 

Unisource Holding also owns another aircraft, a Learjet 55 built in 1983, registration N890AC, which is registered for transport, and can carry up to 19,000 lbs of cargo.  Unisource bought both of these planes from AMTS Aircraft Holdings LLC, located in Sugar Grove, IL.  AMTS Aircraft Holdings filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in March of 2012.  Both planes were registered to Unisource Holdings on April 26, 2013.

Unisource Holding, Inc. is a Guatemalan company that exports agricultural goods (coffee, sesame seeds, cardamon) and develops real estate in the Guatemala.  They also provide broadband satellite internet services to rural Guatemala.

It was unusual that the Honduran military were not notified of this flight by the US radar operators from the Southern Command in Tampa, Fl. or by the US radar operators in Puerto Castillo.  Under a joint agreement the US supplies radar sightings to the Honduran military, who then try to intercept and interdict the plane.  This service was briefly interrupted last year when Honduran pilots twice shot down suspected drug planes in violation of their agreement with the US.  After a brief closure, the service was reinstated after the Honduran military reluctantly agreed to reinforce the agreed-upon protocol with their pilots.

We will undoubtedly see within a few weeks that the registration record will update to show that this plane was "recently sold" to someone who took it out of the US.  Thus like guns, American planes fuel the drug trade with impunity.Any source