gary1954 wrote:
did the same thing in Georgia, used a dozer to clear out an LZ on the top of a mountain, flew in, landed safely, unloaded the dope, and hauled A Double S from the scene never to be seen again. Can't recall who flew the plane out, but they government got her outta there
Actually, they didn't get the pot out of the airplane. A passing trucker saw the airplane "go down", reported a crash (good 'ol CB radios), and the police showed up pretty quickly considering this was at night out in the sticks NE of Atlanta. The flight crew and the labor escaped, 'cause the police were looking for a crashed airplane, not drug runners.
The govt bolted on a few JATO units and did fly the airplane out of the relatively small field. The airplane stayed at "Bear Creek" airport for several years while its status was being resolved. Bear Creek was renamed in later years to Tara Field.
I remember seeing a movie many years ago which involved a DC-4/C-54 that had been used on a drug run. They landed it on a mountain (or something) in Polk Co. Georgia and it got impounded. Eventually they made a (fictional) film about the affair and used the a/c in it. You can read more about it here.