Yesterday afternoon, the residents of San Victor Village in the Corozal District heard the droning sound of a low flying airplane - not an altogether unusual occurrence in that area - which borders Mexico.
But this drone was followed by a crash - because this illicit landing was botched by a bad cane road.
Still, the illicit cargo and the occupant were nowhere to be found by the time police got there.
We went to the area today to find out what happened, and here's what we found:..
Jules Vasquez reporting
Police kept a strong presence on the cane roads adjoining San Victor Village in the Corozal District.
But it was nothing more than a good show, because the Cessna 210n had long been emptied of whatever illicit cargo it carried.
Yesterday at around 4:00 pm, the plane landed on this feeder road, which is about a mile and a half from San Victor - and it's also about a mile from the Rio Hondo which is the un-policed border with Mexico.
Aviation veterans on the scene told us that the single engine plane seemed to have landed on the wrong end of the dirt road.
The pilot probably tried to avoid this huge hole in the middle of the road, which is when he veered off into a cane field - and the plane ended up in a mangled mess.
But it doesn't seem anyone was hurt. There's no blood inside the cabin - neither is there any trace of any illicit cargo - all we saw were a few scraps of Mexican product tags.
The plane appears to have been set up to carry a maximum cargo payload - as the cabin had only two seats. Experts say it can carry over a thousand pounds in cargo.
The registration numbers are also bogus - they point to an Ecuadorian registration - but the plane is Mexican.
Police believe it was a refueling stop - but the crash threw off those plans. According to reports police found a fuel container nearby.
The big question is where did the illicit cargo - most likely drugs - go? In this case, across the river is as good a guess as any. But, the truth is, there are few answers; these planes are common in this area - what is uncommon is a crash like this.
(June 20, 2011)
The last one in this area was found on an identical cane road near Guinea Grass Village 10 months ago - that one slipped off a wet road - this one tried to dodge a hole in the road.
And just like in that case, this time police were left with no useful evidence, no drug cargo - just a wrecked plane that's hardly worth the trouble to take it out of the area as scrap.
The aircraft was disassembled and trucked out to BDF Headquarters. The engine is destroyed as is the body and it is considered unsalvageable.
The Cessna 210 with retractable wheels - like this one is considered a fast airplane and before it as crashed, this one was worth about two hundred thousand dollars.
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