Crop Duster Incident - Coincidence?

Uh oh..........

http://msnbc.com/news/645974.asp

FBI looking into crop-duster incident

Vessels on Mississippi may have been deliberately sprayed

By Peter Aronson
MSNBC

Oct. 22 — A towboat pushing 17 barges along the Mississippi River appeared to have been deliberately sprayed by a crop-duster plane on Friday, authorities said Monday.

THE TOWBOAT Julia Woods was sprayed with an unknown white substance when it was approximately 30 miles south of Helena, Ark., near the entrance to Sunflower Lake.
The plane appeared to release the spray on purpose, said Kent Buckley, director of the Bolivar County, Miss., Emergency Management Agency, because it then circled around to spray a pleasure boat. Authorities were hoping to find the pleasure boaters or anyone else who may have seen the plane and could help identify it, Buckley told MSNBC.com.
The Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are all looking into the matter.
“This was a deliberate act by a crop duster — this was no accident,” Buckley said.
Authorities, including President Bush, have warned of the possibility that crop dusters could be used to propagate biological or chemical weapons, but authorities have not said they believe that to be the case in Friday’s incident.

EPA TESTING SPRAYED SUBSTANCE
The Environmental Protection Agency was testing the sprayed substance, Buckley said. He did not know when the results would be available.
A spokeswoman for the state health department, NancyKay Wessman, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked the Mississippi Department of Health to test the unknown substance.
Crew members aboard the towboat have reported no health problems, but were given the drug Cipro as a precaution, officials said. The antibiotic is used to treat a number of diseases, including anthrax.
Buckley said officials suspect the substance sprayed was sodium chlorate, used to defoliate cotton crops. Buckley said that sodium chlorate is like salt water and is not dangerous.
It was unclear how many people were on the tugboat and pleasure boat, or if any of the crews were on deck when the plane passed over, he added.





A spokesman at Mid South Towing of Metropolis, Ill., the company that owns the towboat, referred calls to the Coast Guard in Memphis.
After the incident, the towboat docked in Rosedale, Miss., Buckley said. But by 7:45 a.m. Monday (8:45 a.m. ET), the Julia Woods was once again under way and headed downriver to Vicksburg, Miss., where the crew was to speak with FBI investigators, an official at the Coast Guard’s marine safety office in Memphis said in an interview.
FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said the Bureau would not comment on the incident, because it is the subject of an ongoing investigation.
He could not say what was being carried aboard the barges.
“The FBI is the lead federal agency for the investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident,” a Coast Guard statement said. “The Coast Guard is working closely with various local and state officials as well.”
“The Coast Guard remains very vigilant of the mission of Homeland Defense and asks that mariners continue to remain vigilant as well,” the statement said.

 

Actually, it wasn't the fact that it could have been a target that was a bit scary. They may have been testing the plane and delivery and timing of the spraying capabilities.