[MilCom] Helo crash in Columbia; poss Patrick-based DOS Huey?

[AllanStern at aol.com]

The US State Dept UH-1s based at Patrick provide armed cover  for the US 
State Dept OV-10Ds, also based at Patrick, during their spraying in  Columbia.  So 
the helo that crashed was performing the same mission.   I am trying to find 
out if it was one of the helos based at Patrick AFB.
 
AL STERN  Satellite Beach FL
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Helicopter crashes on anti-drug mission in Colombia; 3 police killed  

The Associated Press 
Three police officers were killed Friday when  their helicopter crashed while 
providing armed cover for U.S.-supplied crop  dusters on an anti-drug 
operation in southern Colombia.

The Bell "Huey"  UH-1H helicopter was returning from a mission in Putumayo 
province when its  motor failed and crashed, also gravely injuring the pilot, 
Colombia's  anti-narcotics police said.

"It was preparing to land and was just seven  kilometers (4 miles) from the 
airport when the crash took place," Maj. Ricardo  Blanco, a police spokesman, 
told The Associated Press.

Crop-dusting  planes are used to chemically fumigate fields of coca, the raw 
ingredient of  cocaine, and the helicopters escorting them are frequently 
fired upon by leftist  rebels in Colombia's lawless southern provinces.

The drug trade is the  principal source of income with which rebels belonging 
to the Revolutionary  Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, finance their 
four-decade-old armed struggle  to overthrow the government.

Police were investigating the cause of the  crash, Blanco said.

Under the Plan Colombia anti-drug program, the United  States has supplied 
the South American nation with fumigation planes as well as  Black Hawk 
helicopters also used for protection during the missions. Washington  has sent more 
than US$4 billion (?3.1 billion) in mostly military aid to the  country since 
2000.