Nine Aboard Escape Serious Injury

A National Guard Bell UH-1 "Huey" (file photo of type below) transporting US Border Patrol agents crashed on a hillside in a rural area south of San Diego yesterday afternoon. Of the nine aboard, five were taken to area hospitals with light to moderate neck and back injuries.

Border Patrol spokesman for the San Diego sector James Jacques told the Associate Press, "To have a bird go down like this with nine people on board and not have anyone in intensive care is a huge relief."

National Guard Colonel Dave Baldwin said the chopper was on a routine mission moving the agents either to or from a remote site along the US-Mexico border.

The mission, flown under Operation Jumpstart, is part of a plan announced last year by President Bush to station up to 6,000 National Guard troops along the US-Mexico border to assist local and federal agents in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants.

Government officials said about 1,400 Guard members currently patrol the US-Mexico border in California.

Yesterday's mission was to take the Border Patrol agents to a mountainous region inaccessible by ground vehicle. The crash site is located a few miles north of the international border.

Authorities wouldn't speculate on the cause of the crash, but Captain Brennan Blue of the state's Department of Forestry says power lines near the site were down. It isn't known if the downed lines contributed to, or were caused by, the crash.

The NWS issued a wind advisory for area mountains on Tuesday.

Neither would officials with the Guard discuss the pilot's qualifications or details of the Huey's maintenance history. It did say the chopper was one its older models and was one of two used for such missions.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.calguard.ca.gov, www.cbp.gov