Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2001 Cox Interactive Media.
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press

PLANE MAKER'S SHUTDOWN HINDERS ANTI-DRUG FLIGHTS

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

Ayres Corp. of Albany 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, just five days before it was due 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. "We will not be able to increase our support of the Colombian 
National Police's aerial eradication program as quickly as we had 
originally envisioned," the department said in a statement in response to 
an Associated Press inquiry.

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 ready by year's 
end, he said.

It was not clear if the State Department would wait for the sale. The 
department said it is exploring its legal options and examining ways to get 
planes soon.

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

Ayres' financial collapse stemmed from problems with subcontractors on an 
unrelated contract, Ayres said. The difficulties began about two years ago 
but "didn't seem insurmountable" until August 2000, Ayres said.

Ayres' company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. The 
State Department contract was signed a month or two later, he said.
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