Cessna 206 Hijacked in Mexico

[juxtapilot]

Yikes!

http://www.idahostatesman.com/localn...ry/354504.html

A day after gunmen stole his Cessna airplane during a terrifying ordeal on a private airstrip in a small Mexican town, Patrick Moroney has a simple message for family and friends in Boise: "We are OK."

For a decade, Moroney has vacationed in Mulege, a coastal town on the eastern side of the Baja California Sur peninsula in Mexico.
A day after the attack, Moroney is still stunned.
"The important thing is our family is safe," Moroney said Wednesday night from Mulege. "They did take our aircraft and all of our belongings. But they didn't take us. And that is all that really matters.
"The whole thing is just surreal."
The robbers stole the six-seat single-engine Cessna Stationair as Moroney was about to take off from a hotel airstrip in Mulege Tuesday.
Moroney, 55, his wife, Kimberly, family friend Lin Hawkins, and two girls, ages 6 and 8, were in the plane when the thieves pulled a car in front of the plane, knocked out one of the windows and forced the group out at gunpoint.
Detective Juan Carlos de Jesus Jimenez told The Associated Press that the thieves then set fire to the car and flew off in the plane, leaving the group stranded. No one was injured.
Charles Smith, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, said U.S. and Mexican authorities are investigating the case and were still looking for the plane Wednesday.
In an interview with the Idaho Statesman Wednesday night, Moroney said he wasn't ready to talk about too many details of the armed robbery.
He did say the residents of the close-knit town of Mulege seemed as shocked as he is about what happened - especially since the gunmen used weapons and brazenly took the plane.
"We know so many people in this small community, we have so many friends, and they all told us they couldn't sleep last night either," said Moroney, who earned his pilot's license at age 18. "They are devastated."
Mulege residents depend on tourism for much of their livelihood. But in addition to being a frequent visitor, Moroney has volunteered his time and plane for humanitarian missions, such as relief efforts following Hurricane John in 2006.
Moroney said he spent much of Wednesday on the phone or meeting with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and high-ranking Mexican government officials, answering questions about the incident and figuring out what to do next.
Since 1979, Moroney has owned Cobby's Sandwich Shop's - a popular Boise-based eatery which has won the Statesman's Best Sandwich Shop in the Treasure Valley award numerous times. There are Cobby's stores in Boise, Garden City and Nampa.
Ironically, the incident on the airstrip occurred a day after the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert. The alert cites security concerns in Northern Mexico due to conflicts between Mexican law enforcement and "heavily armed narcotics cartels."
"The timing and location of future armed engagements there cannot be predicted" and could put Americans at risk, according to State Department officials The travel alert also says armed robberies and carjackings, apparently unconnected to the narcotics trade, have increased in the Tijuana area. Most of that violence in Mexico is near the U.S. border.

[Rodelu]

Great transport airplane....about 500 kilos or so...
I bet is flying under the radar somewhere in South America..

[aviatorrbt]

That's a nice kilo mover.

[juxtapilot]

Here's some interesting information from www.montanapilots.org

According to the Associated Press, gunmen held up a family of U.S. tourists in Mexico on Tuesday, April 15, and made off with their Cessna 206 Stationair, which is registered to a Boise company.

The robbers attacked the plane as Patrick Moroney, 55, his wife Kimberly, their 6-and-8 year-old daughters, and 38-year-old family friend Lin Hawkins, all of Boise, were about to take off from a hotel airstrip in the Baja California beach town of Mulege. More

Detective Juan Carlos de Jesus Jimenez said the thieves pulled a car in front of the six-seat Cessna knocked out one of its windows and forced the tourists out at gunpoint. They then set fire to the car and flew off in the plane.

U.S. officials said they had heard reports about the incident but had not yet been in contact with the victims.

The plane's identification number matched a craft registered to a company in Boise. Additional details were not immediately available.

Small aircraft are commonly used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle narcotics.

Editor's note—I had sent an e-mail to Bobbi and Dave Powers who have a home in Mulege not knowing if they were still there or had returned to Montana. This is the e-mail response from Dave with more details about the incident:

Hi Art--This is Dave. I am in Mulege and Bobbi is in Arizona with a student from South Africa.

I know Pat, whose 206 was hi-jacked. I talked to him and his family about an hour after the fact. He was flying family with two little children out and had taxied to the south end to take off on 32. He had done his run-up while taxiing. He did a 180 and was face to face with a car which had followed him up the airstrip. Four Mexicans jumped the fence by the plane with guns drawn and the two in the car got out and all went to the plane with guns pointed. They ordered everyone OUT NOW OR DIE. Pat was not fast enough and they broke the pilot window and pointed the gun to Pats head and said OUT NOW OR DIE.

Everyone deplaned and the Mexicans pushed the car to the side of the runway and had already doused it with gasoline and torched it. They then jumped in the plane-all six-and took off and turned up river to the west. It appeared to observers they were on the verge of a stall. Full fuel, quite a little luggage left in the plane and the six Mexicans were not small. About 10 minutes later the plane was seen coming from the west over our home in Posada and heading south.

The six bandits had been around Mulege for over a week and were supposedly camped close to the end of the runway. The information was sent to all airports and thousands of pilots thru BajaBushPilots.com within minutes of the event. Our Maule was next to the 206 and is still there, I hope.

I know I will defiantly be more alert to all around me when I get ready to take off.

It is sad and I know it will deter many from flying to Mexico, but when you think of all the car hi-jacking in the US and this is the first, to my knowledge, of a private airplane being hi-Jacked in Mexico.The only good thing is Pat and family did not try to be heroes so no one was injured. I believe they all lost all their licenses, CC, passports, money, luggage, computers, cell phones, cameras etc.

Pat has had a home in Mulege for many years and has helped the town a lot when the hurricane came thru two years ago. He is active in other groups helping the locals also.

We had a turbo 210 stolen from the field a year ago but to my knowledge nothing else.

[aviatorrbt]

So he has had two planes stolen from there?? Sorry, even if that town was in dire need, if people are going to steal my planes, I am NOT going back.