AirScan, Inc. is a

private military company A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military ...

that specializes in airborne surveillance and security.

History

AirScan Inc. was formed in 1984 by former US Air Commandos Walter Holloway and

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with high standards of recruitment. They have been specializing in airborne

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

, security operations, surveillance systems, wildlife surveys and training since 1989. They are one of the few companies able to operate

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

s. They most recently won a $10 million contract from the

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to provide aerial surveillance of the pipelines protected by Erinys International Ltd. They are rather secretive about many of their operations, choosing to remain vague, citing privacy, and speak mostly about their infrared deer surveys and polar bear trackings.

Colombia

On December 13, 1998, AirScan misidentified the village of Santo Domingo as a hostile guerrilla target, leading to a

cluster bomb A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicl ...

attack by Colombian Air Force units which killed eighteen civilians, including nine children. While the AirScan aircraft was in the vicinity, and deserved the action by the Colombian Air Force they were not involved in the operation. Three employees of AirScan were flying the Skymaster plane from which they provided the Colombian military with the coordinates to drop the bombs. The operation had been planned at Occidental's complex in

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by the CAF and AirScan. AirScan is one of the named defendants in the lawsuit Galvis Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum, et al. filed April 23, 2003 in the US District Court in

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. The suit was filed by the

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based

International Labor Rights Fund The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is a nonprofit advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., U.S., that describes itself as "an advocate for and with the working poor around the world." ILRF, formerly the "International L ...

and is based on the

Alien Tort Claims Act The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in viol ...

. The AirScan employees, Arthur McClintock, Jose Orta, and Charlie Denny have disappeared and their location remains unknown. The Coast Guard is investigating whether Orta, who was allegedly flying the plane, was a military officer on active duty at the Coast Guard at the time. AirScan has denied any responsibility for the events. US Representative Jan Schakowsky's letter to

Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African ...

in November 2002 requests he decertify the Colombian Air Force's 1st Combat Command, located at Palanquero airbase, and so that the elements involved in the Santo Domingo attack may stop receiving US funding. US Ambassador Anne Patterson had recommended this action as well and in the summer of 2004, Secretary of State Powell did decertify the unit. He is, however, still reluctant to support finding the three pilots, as Rep. Schakowsky had also requested.

Africa

AirScan has been implicated in running

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weapons to counter-insurgency operations in

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, as well as to rebels in the

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

fighting the

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regime. AirScan was hired by the MPLA government of Angola in late 1997 to provide surveillance of the mostly Chevron owned oil installations in the Cabinda region, a region Angola had just weeks earlier led an offensive from into the Congo. The MPLA had several firms hired in the region including Defence Systems Limited and MPRI, who had been set receive the contract but pulled out at the last moment. The timing and location of hiring AirScan leads some to believe these firms are providing covert training and assistance in oil wealthy areas of Africa. Brigadier General Joe Stringham, a founding member of AirScan and in charge of operations in Cabinda was responsible for many covert counter-insurgency activities in El Salvador during their dirty war in the '80s.

Former Yugoslavia

AirScan was also implicated in air surveillance operations over Macedonia as part of a contract in support of NATO interference in the civil war in former Yugoslavia. AirScan operated a Cessna 337H Skymaster registered N729AS (c/n33802938) fitted with special equipment including a FLIR ball under the port (left) wing and a weather radar under the starboard wing. At least a part of the "take" of AirScan flights was transmitted through the commercial Telstar 11 satellite TV relay, along other imagery gathered by

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

surveillance units. That surveillance was used to monitor terrorist activities, to keep suspects in sight and for counter-trafficking operations support. The broadcasts through channels of Telstar 11 were not enciphered, as it was discovered by a British citizen, John Locker, late 2001.

References

External links