Briefing by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, January 13, 2005

Briefing by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, January 13, 2005

MR. BOUCHER: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I don't have any statements or announcements for you right now. Be glad to take your questions.

Mr. Gedda.

QUESTION: What can you say about the helicopter crash in Colombia?

MR. BOUCHER: I will tell you what I can about it. I would also refer you to the Colombian authorities since they are the ones, obviously, who operate and are responsible for the aircraft. There was a crash at 1:00 a.m., Thursday morning, today, near Tumaco, Colombia, of a Colombian Army helicopter, a Blackhawk helicopter, that was conducting counternarcotics mission at night. There is a Colombian search and rescue team in the area of the crash and they are investigating. There were 19 Colombian nationals onboard. At this point, we don't have any further details of the status of those people.

According to initial reports, the crash may have been the result of bad weather, including heavy cloud cover that affected their visibility, but, obviously, that remains to be determined. And we have coordinated with the Colombians and we will be sending an accident investigation team, including an FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, accident investigator down there to work with Colombian Army representatives to look into the causes of the crash.

The Blackhawk is one of 16 that were purchased by the United States to support Plan Colombia: 14 are dedicated to the Colombian Army; 2 are used by the Colombian National Police. So this is one of those helicopters that is dedicated to the use of the Colombian Army in counternarcotics operations.

QUESTION: You're sure there were no Americans onboard?

MR. BOUCHER: All my information is 19 Colombian nationals were onboard.

QUESTION: Do you know whether they were looking for labs or coca fields?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know the exact mission.

As of January 13, 2005, this document was also available online at http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=January&x=20050113164544xjsnommis0.2714655&t=wh/wh-latest.html