Corporate Air Services HPF821 information

Corporate Air Services HPF821

A Fairchild C-123 owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, photographed in 1971
Incident
Date	October 5, 1986
Summary	Shoot-down
Site	near San Carlos, Río San Juan, Nicaragua
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Fairchild C-123K
Operator	Corporate Air Services, owned by Southern Air Transport
Registration	HPF821 (previously N4410F), ex-USAF 54-679 (c/n 20128)
Flight origin	Ilopango International Airport, El Salvador
Destination	Ilopango International Airport, El Salvador
Passengers	0
Crew	4
Fatalities	3
Injuries	0
Survivors	1

Corporate Air Services HPF821 was a transport aircraft delivering weapons via clandestine airdrop to the Nicaraguan Contras which was shot down over Nicaragua on 5 October 1986 by a surface-to-air missile. Two U.S. pilots, Wallace "Buzz" Sawyer and William Cooper, and the Nicaraguan nationalist radio operator Freddy Vilches died when the Fairchild C-123 Provider was shot down by a Sandinista soldier using an SA-7 shoulder-launched missile, while Eugene Hasenfus, the U.S. "kicker" responsible for pushing the cargo out of the aircraft, survived by parachuting to safety. The aircraft was carrying "60 collapsible AK-47 rifles, 50,000 AK-47 rifle cartridges, several dozen RPG-7 grenade launchers and 150 pairs of jungle boots".^[1]

Hasenfus was captured within 24 hours. He was convicted of terrorism-related charges, sentenced to 30 years in prison, and pardoned a month later to return to his family in Wisconsin; at the request of Senator Chris Dodd and others, he was released in exchange for Sandinista soldiers captured by the Contras.^[1] Hasenfus's comments about CIA backing for the flights were initially denied by the U.S. government,^[2] but investigations of what became known as the Iran-Contra affair showed that the U.S. had organized this and other flights, and had funded the cargo using illegal weapons sales to Iran.