Migrants down US chopper with a stone.

international | racism & migration related issues | other press Friday August 26, 2005 14:17 by speedy gonzales

In what seems an extra-ordinary incident in the daily david and goliath struggle by third world workers to enter or return from the exploitation fields of US labor, a US Border Patrol helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing today after migrants threw stones at it.

One stone hit the rotor blades and the pilot made an emergency landing just north of the All American Canal on the border between the U.S. and Mexico

they may look big and talk tough - but you can still take them down.

Authorities say smugglers are becoming increasingly willing to use violence against border patrol agents as their trade becomes more profitable, with smugglers able to earn about $2,000 per person.

The A-Star helicopter was two miles west of the U.S. Port of Entry in Andrade, Calif., on Tuesday when a group of immigrants began throwing rocks at the aircraft.

One baseball-sized rock gashed the rotor, forcing the pilot to land nearby, said Michael Gramley, spokesman for the Border Patrol sector based in Yuma, Arizona.

"One of the rocks struck one of the three rotors and the pilot instantly felt a bad vibration as he was flying," Gramley said. "He immediately made an emergency landing approximately 1 mile east of the incident."

17 people were apprehended for illegally crossing the border, and two of them were being investigated for smuggling. Ten immigrants evaded capture.

"We believe these 10 subjects were involved in alien smuggling," he said. "We've seen an increased trend in the Yuma (Arizona) sector of violence by smugglers toward agents." The incident took place on the California-Mexico border close to the Arizona state line.

The 10 who escaped headed back south into Mexico.

This is the first time in aviation history that a chopper has been taken down by a rock.
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_2726423.shtml