Hawker N917TF Shot Down Over Caribbean Sea

Incident Overview and Flight Details On May 1, 2015, a Hawker aircraft registered as N917TF departed from Fort Lauderdale-Executive Airport in Florida, with Toluca, Mexico, as its intended destination. The aircraft was later formally cancelled from the U.S. register on June 2, 2015, and recorded as exported to Mexico. During the incident, the aircraft was operating in the day from an airfield in Venezuela, carrying two passengers, two pilots, and a 1.3-ton load of narcotics, en route to Central America. While cruising over the Caribbean Sea off the Colombian coast, the aircraft was intercepted by a Colombian Air Force fighter. In an unclear situation, the right engine of the Hawker caught fire, with the possibility that it was shot down. The crew then descended in a low nose-down attitude until the aircraft impacted the sea and disintegrated. All four occupants were killed, and the narcotics load was found floating on the water. Three dead bodies and some aircraft debris were recovered a few days later on a beach located northeast of Puerto Colombia.