The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) detected an aircraft that illegally entered the country’s airspace, which upon being intercepted tried to evade Venezuelan fighter planes and suffered a crash this Sunday in the town of Turén, Portuguesa state.
This was reported in his X account by the Strategic Operational Commander of the FANBG/J Domingo Hernández Lárez, where he detailed that it was a Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II type aircraft with registration PR-RP.
He said that a deceased crew member was found, as well as traces of criminal interest, such as a Mexican passport and a flight license issued in the United States, as well as other materials that link the plane to drug trafficking.
Procedure
In the post, Hernández Lárez explained that the radars of the Comprehensive Aerospace Defense Command (CODAI) and the Maiquetía FIR reported the illegal entry of a low-flying vector, in flagrant violation of national sovereignty.
“In exercise of our national sovereignty and in attention to the highest interests of security and integral defense for the application of actions of interception, persuasion and neutralization of any aircraft or object that violates the provisions on air traffic, declaring the vector located in flight as a hostile target and not identifying itself, turning off the locator, transponder and hiding the identification plates, the interdiction and aerial interception was ordered,” he clarified.
Upon locating the aircraft, the FANB followed the current procedures to persuade it and order it to land in escort; however, the pilot ignored the orders and tried to evade the combat aircraft and carried out evasive maneuvers at low altitude until making an emergency landing in a field near Turen in the state of Portuguesa, crashing at coordinates 09° 35′ N 069° 05′ W.
“Venezuela is a territory of peace and we will not allow our spaces to be used for the purposes of the scourge of drug trafficking,” emphasized the Strategic Operational Commander of the FANB.
Hernández Lárez noted that on May 10, two other aircraft were disabled in the same region and a clandestine runway prepared as an aerodrome was disabled.
