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Durango plane buzzings are puzzling

Low-flying craft tough to track
A C-130 plane sat on the tarmac Thursday at the Durango-La Plata County Airport. The plane was in Durango to participate in a mock disaster drill. The military pilots said they aren’t the ones flying over Durango at night.

A large, low-flying plane has buzzed Durango several times this week after 11:30 p.m., but officials from nearby Air Force bases say they are not running any training missions in the Durango area.

The plane, which has lights and propeller engines, has woken residents about 11:30 p.m. and 11:40 p.m. on Sunday and Wednesday, respectively. Some residents have reported hearing it other nights at 1 or 1:30 a.m.

It has been seen traveling southeast over the Animas Valley and the city of Durango.

The plane is not from Kirtland Air Force Base, in Albuquerque. The base does not send planes to train in Colorado or fly on Sundays, said Jim Fisher, a spokesman for the base.

But it is possible that a visiting military unit was flying in the area, he said.

“It could be a whole host of different things,” he said.

The base has also gotten complaints about aircraft in Northern Arizona, he said.

The plane is also not coming from Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis in eastern New Mexico, said Major Mindy Yu.

The base would seem like a logical home for the plane because military officials there train pilots to fly at low altitude in the mountains after dark to simulate Afghanistan terrain.

The flight patterns for the missions included the southern San Juan Mountains in Colorado. But plane sightings have been fairly rare and sporadic.

A C-130 transport plane from Kirtland Air Force Base was stationed Thursday at the Durango-La Plata County Airport as part of a mock disaster drill. But the military pilots said they aren’t the ones flying over Durango.

Durango-La Plata County Airport Aviation Director Kip Turner said he did not know anything about the plane, and he has not heard it, but he lives out of town.

Calls to the Federal Aviation Administration in an effort to track down the plane would be fruitless, unless you could give them the tail number on the plane, Turner said.

“You need a tail number. Without a tail number, there wouldn’t be anyone who could help you,” he said.

shane@durangoherald.com



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