U.S. RESCUES FLIERS IN GREENLAND CRASH OF NICARAGUA PLANE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402690023-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: April 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402690023-9
ArTftv;ITK;wr.i~ NEW YORK TIMES
am Pew27 Apri 1, 1985
The Fokker 27 is s, model that can be lane,
used for a variety of civilian and mili- found the downed Nicaraguan P
U.S. Rescues Fliers tary purposes, carrying Passengers, but could see no survivors. Because
4 cargo or paratroopers. Some Fokker dark was settling in and the weather
In Greenland Crash 27's have been fitted with surveillance' was getting bad, he did not try to land.
'devices for maritime reconnaissance The next morning, about 4:15, two
or rigged with bomb racks to attack I C-130's flew to the crash site, where the
OfNiearagua Plane shipping, according to Jane's All the crews saw a man waving his shirt.
World's Aircraft. Colonel Tousey landed his plane, found
e -an alive and nicked up two
h
re
gua- ported that a fuel pump had gone bad had been kept in Greenlana for ques-
The Danish police. report said .the and that he was seeking a place for an boning and investigating team
five-man crew that had been hired it emergency landing. But the pilot r e- would be sent from Copenhagen to in-
Southern Yemen .included an Amer- ported that fog prevented him from quire into the cause of the crash.
scan, an Israeli and an Indian, whc finding an airstrip in eastern Green-
were the three -survivors. The others land. part of the Distant
were a Filipino, who died in the crash, The radar station, pa
and a Jordanian, who died later of in. Early Warning, or. DEW, line, had the
juries and cold. The temperature dur. pie under radar surveillance, Colo-
nel Tom' said, and was able to deter-
ing the night on 'the icecap was 13 do.
mine the map coordinates of its loca-
grees below zero. rion after, it ran out of fuel and crashed.
A spokesman for the Nicaraguan "There was just one straight line of
Embassy said Aeronica had hired the debris," Colonel Tousey said.
1 crew in Southern Yemen to fly the Survivor Waves Shirt
Denmark, of which Greenland from the 1 'said the Nicaraguan plane had taken
territory, quoted a report Danish police in Greenland as saying If from Iceland but ran low on fuel on
that Aeronica, the Nicaraguan domes- the way to Greenland. The plane
tic and international airline, 'had radioed a distress signal to an Amer-
bought the plane in Southern Yemen scan radar station in Greenland.
and that it was being ferried to Nicara- The spokesman for the Danish Em-
bassy said the pilot of the plane re-
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Spkv to The New York Timm
WASHINGTON, April 26 -The crew
of a United States Air National Guard
plane rescued three fliers last plane that
from a Nicaraguan-owned pe
had crashed on the Greenland icecap.
A spokesman for the embassy of
Arabian peninsula bordering on the
Red Sea, the spokesman said, "I guess
we got it cheaper."
The pilot of the rescue plane, a trans-
port fitted with skis, was Lieut. Colonel
Raymond Tousey of the New York Air
National Guard based in Schenectady.
He said in a telephone interview that
the Nicaraguan-Owned Fokker 27, a
twin-engine propeller driven plane
made in the Netherlands, lacked the
range to fly directly across the Atlantic
and was therefore puddle..jumping
across the North Atlantic, "That's the
old World war II ferry route for. fight-
ers and light bombers," he said.... -
. A spokesman for the Defense Depart-
ment here said the Pentagon knew lit-
tle more about the episode than had
been disclosed at midweek in a press ;
release announcing the rescue,
plane to Managua and train Nicara- ; The Air National Guard team, which
guan Pilots and crews, who had no ex- flies the only ski-equipped C-130 trans-
perience with the type of plane that ports in the United States Air Force,
crashed. The spokesman said the plane was at Sondrestrom Air Base in Green-
was to have been used on a route be- land on a routine supply mission, flying
tween Managua, the capital, and the fuel to radar sites, when it received the
country's Atlantic coast. request for the rescue, Colonel Tousey
Asked why the plane had been bought said.
Colonel Tousey said he took off is one
in Southern Yemen, which is on the, plane at about 8 P.M. Saturday and
.
lei s. Colonel ousey
by Craie Detuli
Accordtn to 1 he As- social
id
.
sa
Press r. s sal t e Ts an
entry n-
American w o ew or a
elli ence A en urin the ietnam
ar an now eres P anes or a 1_ v n~
who runs a farm and flies for the Air
Under Radar aurvc.u.,,
bodies. The Colonel said he was on me
ground for about an hour.
Asked about reports that the Nicara-
guan plane carried large amounts of
cash, gold, drugs and Chinese litera-
ture intended for the Sandinista Gov-
ernment in Managua, Colonel Tousey
said, "I saw none of that, but thenI
wasn't looking for anything like that."
said the
The Danish police report
survivors were taken back to Sondre-
strom Air Base, where they were put
into ambulances and taken to the base
I hospital. The Israeli, who needed more
medical attention than the base could
provide, was flown to Copenhagen the
next day, the report said.
The Danish police said the American
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402690023-9