U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal

The U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal involved a scheme, called the Historical Aircraft Exchange Program, in which the agency would acquire retired U.S. Air Force C-130A

C-130 Hercules

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...

transport aircraft and U.S. Navy P-3

P-3 Orion

The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The aircraft is easily recognizable by its distinctive tail stinger or...

anti-submarine patrol aircraft, ostensibly for use as firefighting airtankers, but which ended up with the planes' ownership being transferred illegally to private companies and the aircraft themselves being used for other purposes or even sold for a profit. The controversy resulted in two of the involved principals being sentenced to prison and a number of civil lawsuits.

Background

The USFS had traditionally relied on contracting with private companies to provide large airtankers for fighting forest fires, the majority of which had been retired World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

-era transports, bombers, and maritime patrol aircraft. Such aircraft were relatively inexpensive to obtain and could carry the large loads of fire retardant

Fire retardant

A fire retardant is a substance other than water that reduces flammability of fuels or delays their combustion. This typically refers to chemical retardants but may also include substances that work by physical action, such as cooling the fuels; examples of these include fire-fighting foams and...

needed to make their use effective. In the 1980s, the bulk of the airtanker fleet consisted of C-119 Flying Boxcar

C-119 Flying Boxcar

The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechanized equipment, and to drop cargo and troops by parachute...

s which had been obtained from the military. After concerns about safety, the aging C-119s were grounded in 1987. Because the available airtanker fleet was substantially diminished, the Forest Service needed to obtain additional aircraft for firefighting operations.

Exchange scheme

In December 1987, the director of Fire and Aviation Management for the USFS instructed Fred Fuchs, Deputy Director of Fire and Aviation, to request that the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

cooperate with civilian contractors in a plan to obtain surplus military transport aircraft stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, and approximately south-southeast of downtown, Tucson, Arizona....

in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

, which could be converted to airtankers. Besides replacing the grounded C-119s, this program was intended to modernize the tanker fleet to all-turbine aircraft.

At the time, Roy D. Reagan was a private aircraft broker representing Hemet Valley

Hemet, California

Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 78,657 at the 2010 census....

Flying Service, one of the Forest Service's contractors, and an operator of C-119s. At a meeting on December 23, 1987, attended by both Fuchs and Reagan, the Air Force was presented with the idea of transferring Air Force C-130As to the Air Force Museum

National Museum of the United States Air Force

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display...

, which would then exchange the C-130As with Hemet Valley's grounded C-119s, since the latter aircraft could be considered "historic" aircraft. However, at a subsequent meeting with representatives of the Air Force Museum, Air Force officials reacted negatively to the idea of such an exchange.

Fuchs and Reagan then met with representatives of the General Services Administration

General Services Administration

The General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S...

(GSA) who suggested that the exchanges be conducted without going through the Air Force Museum, and instead have the Forest Service become directly involved. In this version of the plan, the Air Force would declare that the aircraft were "excess property" and transfer them to GSA, who could then legally make the planes available to other government agencies, but with the provision that any agencies receiving them would be required to retain ownership. This plan was agreed upon, and Fuchs was given responsibility for coordinating the exchange program for the Forest Service. He did not, however, discuss the plan with the Forest Service's Office of General Counsel. The letter authorizing the program on behalf of the Forest Service stated that it complied with various provisions of the federal regulations, when in actuality it did not. In addition, Fuchs provided bills of sale to the contractors, transferring actual ownership of the planes to the companies, in violation of the applicable regulations, as well as the provisions laid down by the GSA. Further, Fuchs told his USFS superiors that the transfer of ownership had been approved by the GSA when in fact it had not. In the ensuing criminal trial, three Air Force generals testified that they were not aware that the government would be losing title to the aircraft; if they had, they said, they would not have approved the program.

Initially, four airtanker operators were represented by Reagan and participated in the exchange program: Hemet Valley Flying Service, Aero Union

Aero Union

For the Mexico City based cargo Airline see AeroUnionAero Union Corporation is an aircraft operation & maintenance company based in Chico, California, United States...

, TBM, Inc., and Hawkins and Powers. Because only a select number of contractors were provided aircraft, and because the program was not publicized nor were the contracts and aircraft put up for bid, accusations of favoritism followed.

T&G Aviation of Chandler, Arizona

Chandler, Arizona

-Demographics:As of the Census of 2010, there were 236,123 people, 86,924 households, and 60,212 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 73.3% White, 4.8% Black or African American, 1.5% Native American, 8.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 21.9% Hispanic or Latino, and 8.3%...

became aware of the program from one of its competitors (T&G was operating eight older Douglas DC-7

Douglas DC-7

The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...

s at the time). Concerned that this gave its competitors an unfair advantage in obtaining Forest Service firefighting contracts, T&G officials contacted Fuchs, who told them that no more aircraft were available. The company then contacted several congressmen for assistance, and eventually received three C-130s. In exchange, T&G provided a DC-7B to the Pima Air Museum, an SNB-5

Beechcraft Model 18

The Beechcraft Model 18, or "Twin Beech", as it is better known, is a 6-11 seat, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft that was manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas...

to Planes of Fame

Planes of Fame

Planes of Fame Air Museum is an aviation museum located in Chino, California, and Valle, Arizona. The museum has many flying and static aircraft, along with multiple rare examples under restoration.-History:...

and a UH-19B to the Milestones of Flight museum at Fox Field.

The aircraft, ultimately 22 C-130As and six P-3s, ended up being distributed to six contractors. Twelve of the C-130s came from the "ready-reserve national air fleet" stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, and approximately south-southeast of downtown, Tucson, Arizona....

in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

, and 16 were retired from Air Force Reserve units and delivered to Pinal Airpark

Pinal Airpark

Pinal Airpark is a county-owned, public-use airport located seven nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Marana, in Pinal County, Arizona, United States....

in Marana, Arizona

Marana, Arizona

Marana is a town in Pima County, Arizona, located northwest of Tucson, with a small portion in Pinal County. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town is 34,961...

, where they were processed out and transferred through the exchange program. As part of the deal, since Reagan acted as broker on behalf of the companies, he was paid a commission by them in the form of ownership of four of the C-130As, which he subsequently sold for personal profit. The contractors paid nothing for the aircraft, but agreed to perform the conversions and install the fire retardant dispersal equipment at their own cost. The operators then had to competitively bid for the contract at a low enough price to be awarded a year-long contract for fire suppression missions.

USDA and Forest Service

In 1989, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, the parent agency of the Forest Service) began to look at the exchange program, which was quietly terminated in January 1990, after the Assistant General Counsel of the USDA concluded that the USFS did not have authority to conduct the program.

In 1993, Forest Service Chief Dale Robertson testified before a House

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

subcommittee, stating, "This has been poorly managed by the Forest Service." Fuchs was demoted in the Forest Service, and retired in 1996.

Gary Eitel

Gary Eitel, a pilot, aviation consultant and aircraft broker, found out about the program and contacted the Forest Service in 1991 to try to obtain C-130s for his clients, who had not been in on the initial deal. He was told by the agency that there were no more aircraft available, and that only three planes had been involved. Suspecting that he was not being told the truth, Eitel began his own investigation, obtaining documentation on the program through the Freedom of Information Act

Freedom of Information Act (United States)

The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...

. Eitel took on the role of whistleblower

Whistleblower

A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...

, and reported his findings in testimony before several congressional subcommittee hearings.

Other federal investigations

As a result of Eitel's personal investigations, he filed several "hotline" complaints to the USDA and the Office of the U.S. Inspector General

Inspector General

An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...

(OIG), leading to the initiation of a number of investigations. In 1992, the OIG determined that the USFS did not have the authority to make the aircraft exchanges.

Federal auditors determined that most of the C-130s given to the contractors were not being used for firefighting, and that the C-119s which were traded in were essentially "junk". Between ten and eleven (depending on the source) of the C-130s were never even converted into airtankers. Agriculture

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

Undersecretary Jim Lyons told the Los Angeles Times that some of the agency's actions were "clearly illegal" and "may have been criminal."

On March 3, 1994, the Department of Defense's assistant inspector general for criminal investigative policy and oversight asked the Justice Department

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

(DoJ) to investigate the Forest Service and the program. In 1995, GSA auditors determined that the U.S. had lost money on the deal, based on comparisons of aircraft values.

Besides these agency investigations, several congressional hearings were held to ferret out the facts of the convoluted program. According to one newspaper, there were "nine years of investigations involving more than a half-dozen federal agencies, at least three congressional inquiries, work by more than two dozen attorneys generating millions of dollars in fees and at least 12 state and federal trials."

Values

Numerous accusations have related to the value of both the vintage airtankers that were being retired, and that of the surplus military aircraft being provided to the contractors. According to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, some of the planes being traded in were of no historical significance and, due to their age, were only worth scrap value, as little as $10,000 per aircraft. The Forest Service contends, though, that 28 of the trade-ins ended up in museums across the country.

On the other side of the deal, the surplus aircraft were also valued at scrap prices by the Forest Service for the purposes of the exchange, as little as $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

15,000 each. The Forest Service later put the value of each plane at between $750,000 and $1.5 million. The Inspector General, however, reported in 1992 that the aircraft were actually worth about $2.4 million each, with a resulting price tag of $67 million for the aircraft which were given to the contractors. The Forest Service has argued that if the aircraft had been actually sold to contractors for their full value, the U.S. tax payers ultimately would have footed the bill in terms of higher airtanker contract costs. The contractors paid for the costs of the conversions, about $500,000 per aircraft, and once they received the planes, they found that the program did not have provisions for providing spare parts to keep the fleet flying, and some of the surplus transports had costly turbine engines which had reached their life limits, and were therefore worthless and had to be replaced.

Firefighting deficiencies

One aspect which several investigations brought to the fore was the impact on firefighting efforts. An investigation into the July 1994 South Canyon fire

South Canyon Fire

The South Canyon Fire was a 1994 wildfire that took the lives of 14 wildland firefighters on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado on July 6th, 1994...

in Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, which killed 14 firefighters, concluded that "Air support was inadequate for implementing strategies and tactics." Eitel has alleged that the reason for inadequate air support was that the aircraft from the exchange program which should have been available to fire managers were instead doing non-fire related work, some of it secret, around the world.

Grand jury

As a result of the DoJ investigation, six years after the termination of the exchange program by the USDA, a grand jury

Grand jury

A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

indicted

Indictment

An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...

Fuchs and Reagan, charging each with one count of conspiracy and one count of converting U.S. property to the use of another. Besides the actual counts the two were charged with, the grand jury specified ten illegal or improper "overt acts" that the two defendants committed, including:

Misrepresenting Reagan's employment status (implying he was a representative of the Forest Service) to both the U.S. Air Force and the Navy
Misrepresenting the manner in which the government-owned aircraft were going to be provided to the private operators
Fuchs received flight time and a resulting upgrade to his personal pilot's license in the aircraft being exchanged
Fuchs altered one of the exchange agreements, adding the serial numbers of aircraft already delivered.

Congressional solution

In 1996, Congress passed Wildfire Suppression Aircraft Act, which gave the DoD authority to sell excess military aircraft to airtanker contractors.

Criminal cases

After a trial in U.S. District Court

United States District Court for the District of Arizona

The United States District Court for the District of Arizona is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Arizona. Court is held in the cities of Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Yuma, and Prescott. The district was created on June 20, 1910, by 36 Stat. 557...

in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

which lasted five weeks, both were convicted in 1997 of the conspiracy charge, but were found "not guilty" on the conversion charge. Fuchs was sentenced to 2 years in prison, while Reagan was sentenced to 2½ years, with both also receiving an additional three years of probation. There were no fines levied. The men began serving their sentences on May 4, 1998.

The two appealed their sentences, although in an unusual move for such a case, their prison sentences were not stayed pending appeal. In July, 2000, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...

, in a 2-to-1 decision, overturned the convictions on the grounds that the original trial jury

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

was improperly instructed regarding the possible implications of the statute of limitations

Statute of limitations

A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...

on some of the conspiracy-related activities. With the reversal, the two defendants were released from prison, after serving 20 months. Federal prosecutors elected not to retry the two.

Repossession suits

Eventually, a Forest Service contracting officer determined that the exchanges had been illegal, and on December 1, 1998, the Forest Service asserted ownership of the aircraft and ruled that the aircraft must be returned. "The original exchange agreements for the transfer of aircraft are void because we didn't have the authority to conduct an exchange. I have been working to resolve concerns about the air tanker program raised in the OIG audit and issued the letter asserting aircraft ownership on behalf of the Agency," stated Ron Hooper, staff assistant to the Forest Service Deputy Chief for Business Operations, the contracting officer who made the determination of ownership, and who would later testify to that effect in court. In letters sent to the operators, the Forest Service also said that they were prepared to return the titles of the historical aircraft then in museums, many of which were no longer flyable. The airtanker operators sued and eventually prevailed against this ruling. The assertion of ownership ruling allowed for continued operation of eleven of the aircraft which were scheduled to be used under the 1999 National Air Tanker Contract (five other operable aircraft were in the possession of companies who either were unsuccessful in their bid for the contract, or simply chose not to bid; the aircraft, the USFS stated, must still be maintained and used only for firefighting purposes).

In response, several of the companies filed suit to prevent this. Years of legal wrangling ensued, until March, 2007 when the matter finally went to trial in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which ruled for International Air Response, the successor to T&G Aviation. The Government had required the return of the three C-130As provided to T&G or a payment of US$2.4 million plus interest, and the court invalidated this request based on existing law (40 USC 544) which states that if a Bill of Sale is provided, that is evidence that the transaction meets all regulatory requirements. In thus ruling, the court determined that despite the transactions being illegal from the Forest Service's perspective, the purchasers could not be held liable for the agency's improper activities.

Similarly, Pacific Harbor Capital received a summary judgment regarding ownership of two of the C-130As, since bills of sale that could be traced back to those issued by Fuchs had been executed. Even though it was illegal for the USFS to issue such bills, the court ruled that such action did not nullify good-faith purchases on the part of the contractors.

Eitel qui tam

In 1994, Gary Eitel filed a qui tam
Qui tam
In common law, a writ of qui tam is a writ whereby a private individual who assists a prosecution can receive all or part of any penalty imposed...

civil lawsuit on behalf of the Federal government against Reagan, the six airtanker operators, and a number of other defendants, which alleged fraud and the unjust gain of enrichment through the exchange program. Due to federal law, Fuchs is immune from being named in such a civil suit. Initially, the U.S. government declined to join the suit. In a qui tam suit, a private citizen may file suit on behalf of and as an agent for the U.S. Government against entities accused of defrauding the government. While the plaintiff must pay for the legal expenses out of his own pocket (in 1998 Eitel estimated that the suit had cost him $3 million), he is entitled to receive 15% to 30% of the money which the government recovers should he prevail in court. Potential penalties were estimated to run as high as US$500 million. Among the issues raised in court by the suit are "whether some aerial firefighters were unjustly enriched, if the U.S. Justice Department and Forest Service covered up CIA and drug cartel links to some of the planes, whether the planes should remain in private hands, if the list of defendants should grow or dwindle, and who is telling the truth."

The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court

United States District Court for the District of Oregon

The United States District Court for the District of Oregon is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the state of Oregon. It was created in 1859 when the state was admitted to the Union...

in Oregon (because that was where Reagan was living at the time), and that court ended up dismissing the action. Eitel appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which, in 1997, reinstated the case and allowed the Justice Department to join Eitel as a plaintiff in the suit. At this time, the case was also transferred to District Court in Arizona. Eitel and the Justice Department, however, disagreed over the allegations of CIA involvement, and whether that should be a factor in the suit. The DoJ filed motions in 1998 to drop several of the defendants, provoking a sharp disagreement between Eitel and the Department, and resulting in Eitel's accusation that the DoJ was covering up covert activities and evidence.

One of the defendants named in the suit was Riverside County, California

Riverside County, California

Riverside County is a county in the U.S. state of California. One of 58 California counties, it covers in the southern part of the state, and stretches from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the state border with Arizona. The county derives its name from the city of Riverside,...

County Supervisor

County board of supervisors

The Board of Supervisors is the body that supervises the operation of county government in all counties in Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Sussex County, New Jersey as well as a handful of counties in New York...

Jim Venable, who was also the President of the original recipient, Hemet Valley Flying Service, which received seven of the C-130s.

Eitel filed a separate civil suit, which was later combined into his whistleblower action, against the DoJ, USDA and the GSA for an out-of-court settlement between the government and Aero Union and TBM. These two contractors had received aircraft which the government had retained title of, and instead of maintaining the planes, they dismantled them for parts, netting $750,000 in proceeds.

Aircraft disposition

In the original intent of the exchange program, the C-130s were supposed to stay under U.S. agency control, and were supposed to only be used by the contractors for firefighting purposes within U.S borders. However, not only were the titles of the aircraft transferred out of federal and into private control, but the aircraft were used for a lot more than firefighting. Some of the aircraft were simply sold on the open market (with one being sold to a South African fish-hauling operation), others underwent convoluted title transfers that masked their ownership, and Federal auditors found that a number of the C-130s had been dismantled and their parts sold on the open market. Reagan received title to four of the aircraft as his "commission", which he then sold for $1.1 million. During the criminal case, both trial and appellate, it was noted that proceeds from these sales were not declared by Reagan on his income taxes, which the court stated as being evidence that he knew the transactions were illegal.

Two of the aircraft, operated by T&G, were found to be hauling cargo in Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

at the end of the Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

. This discovery played a big part in prompting some of the investigations, and resulted in the Forest Service and the FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

insisting that the planes be returned to the U.S.

Drug trafficking seizure

There have been at least two drug trafficking incidents involving C-130s from T&G Aviation, one of the original five contractors in the exchange program. In 1990 - 1991, T&G leased a C-130A to the Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

nian airline Trans Latin Air, which was indicted in 1994 in a Chicago federal court

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois is the trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois....

as one of the aviation companies used by the Cali Cartel

Cali Cartel

The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño...

of Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. Luis Carlos Herrera Lizcano, a Colombian aviation executive that was involved with Trans Latin Air, was sentenced in 1995 to five years in a Florida federal prison. The C-130A, and one other were then sold by T&G in 1993 to Aero Postal de Mexico for US$3.6 million.

In October 1997, one of those two aircraft was again in the spotlight when Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

federal officials seized it as a drug hauler

Illegal drug trade

The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...

. Mexican investigators had linked Aero Postal de Mexico's owner, Jesus Villegas Covallos, to Ramón Arellano Félix

Ramón Arellano Félix

Ramon Arellano Félix was a Mexican drug trafficker whom authorities linked to the Tijuana drug cartel ....

of the Tijuana Cartel

Tijuana Cartel

The Tijuana Cartel is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel has been described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico"...

. Because of the size and visibility of the C-130, officials doubted that the aircraft was used to bring drugs into the U.S., but was ideal for transporting the contraband "either within the interior of Mexico or from South or Central America."

T&G subsequently filed for bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, and its assets were taken over by International Air Response.

CIA-use allegations

The alleged covert use of some of the C-130s by operators under contract with the CIA naturally received a fair amount of media attention. The source of the CIA allegation was whistleblower Gary Eitel, who began to suspect "criminal wrongdoing" and that he had "inadvertently stepped into a covert CIA operation" during his investigation. He came to believe that the exchange program, in part, was a way to funnel military aircraft into the hands of private companies who contracted their services to the CIA, using the Forest Service as an innocuous middle-man for the transfer.

After his investigation, Assistant Inspector General James Ebbitt testified that he found no evidence of CIA involvement in the program. Congressman Charles Rose

Charlie Rose (congressman)

Charles Grandison "Charlie" Rose III is a former Democratic United States Congressman from North Carolina who served from 1973 to 1997....

, after hearing Eitel's testimony, went on record saying that he was suspicious, stating, "This situation stinks to high heaven." Both the CIA and the Forest Service have vehemently denied CIA involvement in the exchange program. Ultimately, all of the CIA allegations link back to Eitel's claims, and other than his persistent testimony in hearings and later in court, no evidence has been produced corroborating a CIA link to the aircraft. The Justice Department has also denied any link, with Assistant U.S. Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

Claire Lefkowitz on record as stating "We've never found any evidence of CIA involvement."

Reagan attempted to use a CIA connection to motion for a new trial, alleging that one of the prosecution witnesses was a CIA operative who himself was under a criminal investigation. In rejecting the motion, U.S. District Judge William Browning stated, "The allegation that the CIA was involved is at best illusory. While it is titillating, it's not brought out by any evidence on the record."

Crashes and fleet grounding

Three of the C-130s ended up crashing, two in California (1994 and 2002) when their wings separated in flight due to structural failure, and one in France in 2000 for as-yet-undetermined reasons. The France crash involved one of T&G's C-130s. As a direct result of these accidents, in 2004 the entire fleet of C-130A airtankers was permanently grounded by the Forest Service due to safety concerns. The P-3As, all of which are operated by Aero Union, were also initially grounded, but were later returned to the air after it was determined that they could be operated safely, and they remain in service.

External links

False Claims Act and Qui Tam Quarterly Review, October 1995
"Probe of Aircraft Deals to Widen Forest Service Role Rooted in Long-Running CIA Link?", Seattle Press-Intelligencer
International Air Response vs USA, U.S. Appeals Court, 01-5117 This successful appeal led to the ruling that the contractors could keep their aircraft.
USDA OIG Audit Report, including a redacted listing of all the aircraft included in the exchange program (redaction removed aircraft identification numbers)
USDA OIG FY2003 Semiannual Report to Congress
"Plane theft trial begins this week", Associated Press

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