US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1602

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Identifier:	05TEGUCIGALPA1602
Wikileaks:	View 05TEGUCIGALPA1602 at Wikileaks.org
Origin:	Embassy Tegucigalpa
Created:	2005-08-03 13:34:00
Classification:	UNCLASSIFIED
Tags:	EAIR KHLS CVIS HO FAA
Redacted:	This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001602 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAIR, KHLS, CVIS, HO, FAA 
SUBJECT: BIRDSTRIKE DAMAGES JPATS ENGINE; NO INJURIES 
 
1. A Department of Homeland Security Boeing 737 completing a 
Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) 
mission to Honduras encountered a vulture on takeoff from 
Tegucigalpa's Toncontin airport yesterday. The bird was 
sucked into the plane's number two engine, setting the 
engine on fire. The pilot shut down the engine, and rather 
than attempt to return to Toncontin's notoriously short 
runway, flew on to make an emergency landing in San Pedro 
Sula. There were no passenger injuries or damages to the 
plane except for the engine, which will be replaced. The 
plane is currently undergoing repairs at the San Pedro Sula 
airport. 
 
2. The flight, which originated in Alexandria, Louisiana, 
was one of the regularly scheduled JPATS missions returning 
deportees to Honduras. The plane had dispatched a group of 
deportees yesterday in Tegucigalpa and was on its way to San 
Pedro Sula's Ramon Villeda Morales airport for refueling 
when it struck the vulture. Another JPATS flight was 
diverted from Guatemala to pick up the crew members and U.S. 
immigration officials in San Pedro Sula and return them to 
the U.S. 
 
Tuebner