HOME - VLIEHORS "CORNFIELD" RANGE - MOVEMENTS EHLW - GALLERY - HALL OF FAME - WRECKS & RELICS - GUESTBOOK -


         

CIA Fairchild C-123K 54-0663 Turned into bar/restaurant





The Fairchild C-123K "provider" 54-0663 (20112) Radiocall:"40663" was a part of one of the biggest scandals in the mid 1980's. During this time, the Reagan Administration had set up a bizarre network of arms sales to Iran designed to win release of US hostages being held in Lebanon and raise money to fund the Nicaraguan, counter-revolutionary guerilla fighters, commonly referred to as the "Contras." By artificially inflating the prices of the arms, NSA official Oliver North, was able to reap profits that could be diverted to fund the counter-revolutionaries of the Cuban allied Sandinista government.
Of the $16 million in profits raised, only $3.8 million actually funded the Contras. With the CIA's help, they purchased several items, including two C-123 cargo planes (one of which is our plane), two C-7 planes, a Maule aircraft, spare parts, and munitions. They also built a secret airstrip on an American-owned, 30,000 acre ranch in northwest Costa Rica. On October 5, 1986, a US cargo plane (the twin sister **) of El Avion's own Fairchild C-123, was shot down over southern Nicaragua. One of the crewmembers, C.I.A operative Eugene Hasenfus, parachuted to safety and was captured by the Sandinista army. Led out of the jungle at gun point, Hasenfus's very existence set in motion an incredible chain of cover-ups and lies that would mushroom into one of the biggest scandals in American political history known as the Iran-Contra Affair. As a result of this successful Sandinista strike on our Fairchild's sister plane, the cargo operation was suspended and one of the C-123s was abandoned at the International Airport in San Jose.

Credits: El Avion.

=tekst edited by P.R.Kroese

 

**Twin Sister

The "El Avion twin sister" Fairchild C-123K Provider N4410F was bought by Corporate Air Services, which was working on behalf of the CIA. The airplane was re-registered HPF821. In 1986 HPF821 was used on a U.S. government-sponsored covert resupply program for the Contras in Nicaragua. On October 5, 1986 the flight departed San Salvador-Ilopango Airport loaded with 70 Soviet-made AK-47 rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition, rocket grenades and other supplies. It flew along the Nicaraguan coastline and entered Nicaraguan airspace near the Costa Rican border. Nearing San Carlos, the plane descended to 2500 feet while preparing to drop off its cargo. At that moment the Provider was shot down by a Sandinista soldier using a SA-7 missile. As it spiralled down, one crew member Eugene H. Hasenfus was able to parachute to safety. He was captured by the Sandinistas. Two American pilots, William H. Cooper and Wallace B. Sawyer, Jr., and one Latin crew member were killed.
The downing of the C-123 cargo plane on Oct. 5, 1986, led to the discovery of an extensive United States contra supply operation that was based in El Salvador and financed by the profits from the American sale of arms to Iran.
President Ronald Reagan denied that there was any Government connection to the flight. But Mr. Hasenfus, and documents in the wreckage of the plane, linked the crew to Government involvement.

Background information about the story:

Barry Seal, Air Contra, And Mena Airport Chapter 20. The secret life of Bill Clinton.

Eugene H. Hasenfus

Barry Seal



Specifications C-123K "Provider"

Back to Home

All right reserved © 2006-2013 P.R.Kroese