Mysterious cargo plane abandoned in Blue Creek
Monday, September 1, 2003
It began innocently enough...the hum of an engine piercing the silence
of sunset in the Mennonite community of Blue Creek in the Orange Walk
District. But within minutes, the noise increased and then villagers
watched in surprise as a sixty-foot cargo plane used their farm road as
a runway. Strange vehicles bearing Mexican license plates came
next...and as fast as they'd come, everyone vanished...leaving the plane
and a whole lot of questions behind. News 5's Patrick Jones and
Cameraman George Tillett were in Blue Creek today...here's what they
found.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The unusual sound of a large aircraft flying low over the village on
Friday evening prompted residents to go peeping outside. According to
one farmer who wished to appear off camera, what they found was simply
astounding.
Blue Creek Farmer
"I was looking all time at it as it was landing, in that I hear it land
over this plane. And in the evening my sons came over just for fun and I
told them don't go there. And they over to my place and they told me
that the plane was over there and they saw the plane there. They saw
people too, but just the lights. But they were scary and they turned
around and came home."
Heavily armed B.D.F. and police now stand guard over the imposing
aircraft in the northern community section of Blue Creek, about three
miles from the Mexican border.
Estimations are that the Russian made cargo plane has been sitting in
the middle of this farm road from as late as Friday evening. Residents
of the Blue Creek community tell News 5 that they heard the plane
hovering overhead and that it came down sometime between five and six
o'clock in the evening.
Officials of the Belize Government have been on site since the weekend
salvaging the aircraft to try to determine its payload, where it came
from and where it was going.
Chairman of the village Peter Rempel says the presence of the plane in
Blue Creek is cause for concern.
Peter Rempel, Chairman, Blue Creek Village
Definitely we are afraid of what is going on in the community like that.
But we don't know what is happening, we don't know what it is."
And whatever official plans are for the aircraft, Rempel says farmers
just want their road back.
Peter Rempel
"We just offer them to move it from there and we wait for them to okay
it and then we will go ahead and move it from there, so that we can move
the road."
Patrick Jones
"When you say move it, what are you going to do, haul it away or drive
it away?"
Peter Rempel
Haul it away. That doesn't belong to us, we would just haul it from the
road and then the government can decide what it wants to do. Just push
it aside so we use the road. After that the government can decide what
they want to do with it."
Patrick Jones for News 5.
At news time tonight, no one had been detained for questioning in
connection with this incident.
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