Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2001 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press Writer

PLANE BUILDER'S CLOSURE HINDERS U.S. DRUG PLANS

WASHINGTON -- The State Department will delay plans to expand its fleet of 
drug spraying planes in Colombia after the planes' bankrupt manufacturer 
shut down its assembly lines this month.

Ayres Corp. of Albany, Ga., had won the contract without having to compete 
for it, despite a rival's claim that Ayres' shaky finances made it 
undependable.

The delay is a setback to the $1.3 billion, U.S.-funded plan to step up 
drug eradication in Colombia. Since the mid-1990s, State Department 
contractors have worked with Colombian police in fumigating coca and opium 
crops, the raw materials for cocaine and heroin.

Ayres halted production Aug. 3, five days before it was to deliver the 
first of nine single-engine, propeller-driven T-65 planes.

Those planes, along with three twin-engine OV-10 planes that the State 
Department is refurbishing, would have increased the 11-plane fleet to 23 
planes by February.

The additional planes are "extremely important because we're trying to go 
after an exploding amount of coca production and opium production," said 
Barry McCaffrey, the former White House drug policy director.

"You want to have a mass of spray aircraft that you can move around the 
country and attack these criminal operations all in one fell swoop and then 
move somewhere else," he said.

The State Department declined to provide specifics on the shutdown's effect.

Congress provided $20 million for the Ayres planes and the refurbished 
OV-10s. Fred Ayres, the president of the plane company, said Ayres' share 
of that was about $15 million.

Ayres' main creditor, GATX Capital Corp. of San Francisco, has taken over 
the company's assets and hopes to find a buyer soon, GATX spokesman Glenn 
L. Hickerson said. If it does, the first planes could be completed by 
year's end, he said.

It was not clear whether the State Department would wait for the sale.

An Ayres rival, Air Tractor Inc. of Olney, Texas, planned to demonstrate a 
spray plane to State Department officials this week, Leland Snow, the 
company's president, said.

In January, Air Tractor cited Ayres' finances when it challenged the State 
Department's decision to award the contract without allowing competitors to 
bid.

Air Tractor also claimed it could build a better plane for drug spraying 
missions and that the contract should have been open to competitive bidding
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager