A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter crash on Thursday night near the southern border left one co-pilot injured.
DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez posted on social media about the crash, noting that it happened at approximately 7:20 p.m. when a “single-engine police helicopter was conducting a border interdiction patrol flight in support of Operation Lone Star.”
“This flight was conducted at night, under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions utilizing night vision goggles, and the crew consisted of a pilot and copilot,” he added in the post.
Olivarez stated that the vehicle suffered a “total loss of power” before entering into an “auto-rotative descent” and crashing into the ground.
The crash resulted in significant damage to the aircraft, while the co-pilot sustained a minor hand injury.
Both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration were notified about the crash. The Texas Highway Patrol secured the scene until the arrival of the two agencies. NTSB will lead the investigation of the incident.
Operation Lone Star is a joint initiative between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department that first began in March 2021, according to a press release sent to The Dallas Express.
The operation’s mission is to stop criminal activity, such as the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and unlawful migrants, along the Texas-Mexico border.
Since the beginning of the operation, state law enforcement officers have seized more than 453 million lethal doses of fentanyl, and over 494,400 unlawful migrants have been apprehended, according to the press release.
However, Operation Lone Star has come under scrutiny due to a joint investigation by The Army Times and The Texas Tribune, which claimed that one in every five soldiers experienced “problems with their pay, including being paid late, too little or not at all for months.”
“Some say they feel underutilized and rarely see migrants while working isolated observation posts that in some cases lacked portable toilets for months,” the joint report detailed.