Question: Which prisoner attempted to escape from the Federal Holding Facility in Miami in a helicopter ?

text: List of helicopter prison escapes
Actual attempts

A helicopter prison escape is made when an inmate escapes from a prison by means of a helicopter. This list includes prisoner escapes where a helicopter was used in an attempt to free prisoners from a place of internment, a prison or correctional facility. One of the earliest instances of using a helicopter to escape a prison was the escape of Joel David Kaplan, nicknamed Man Fan, on August 19, 1971 from the Santa Martha Acatitla in Mexico. Kaplan was a New York businessman who not only successfully escaped the prison but eventually escaped Mexico and went on to write a book about his experience, The 10-Second Jailbreak. France has had more recorded helicopter escape attempts than any other country, with at least 11. One of the most notable French jail breaks occurred in 1986, when the wife of bank robber Michel Vaujour studied for months to learn how to fly a helicopter. Using her newly acquired skills, she rented a white helicopter and flew low over Paris to pluck her husband off the roof of his fortress prison. Vaujour was later seriously wounded in a shootout with police, and his pilot wife was arrested. The record for most helicopter escapes goes to convicted murderer Pascal Payet, who has used helicopters to escape from prisons in 2001, 2003, and most recently 2007. Another multiple helicopter escapee is Vasilis Paleokostas who on February 22, 2009 escaped for the second time from the same prison. Because of this, many prisons have taken applicable precautions, such as nets or cables strung over open prison courtyards.
Date Prison name Country Succeeded Escapee ( s ) Details
August 19 , 1971 Santa Martha Acatitla Mexico Yes Joel David Kaplan Carlos Antonio Contreras Castro Joel David Kaplan was a New York businessman and nephew of molasses tycoon Jacob Merrill Kaplan . The elder Kaplan earned his fortune primarily through operations in Cuba and the Dominican Republic . The J.M . Kaplan Fund ( named after the elder of the two ) was found in a 1964 Congressional investigation to be a conduit for funneling CIA money to Latin America , including through the Institute of International Research headed by Norman Thomas , six-time Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America . In May 1961 , the ruler of the Dominican Republic , Rafael Trujillo was murdered with weapons supplied by the CIA . The CIA described its role in changing the government of the Dominican Republic as a 'success ' in that it assisted in moving the Dominican Republic from a totalitarian dictatorship to a Western-style democracy . In November 1961 , Mexican police found a corpse they identified as Luis Melchior Vidal , Jr. , godson of Trujillo . Vidal was the unofficial business agent of the Dominican Republic while Trujillo was in power . Under cover of the American Sucrose Company and the Paint Company of America , Vidal had teamed up with the American , Joel David Kaplan , to operate as arms merchants for the CIA . In 1962 , the younger Kaplan was convicted of killing Vidal , in Mexico City . Kaplan was held at the Santa Martha Acatitla prison in the Iztapalapa borough of the Mexico City D.F . region . Joel 's sister , Judy Kaplan , attempted to secure his release in numerous ways , finally developing an audacious plot . On August 19 , 1971 , a helicopter landed in the prison yard . The guards mistakenly thought this was an official visit . In two minutes , Kaplan and Kaplan 's cellmate Carlos Antonio Contreras Castro , a Venezuelan counterfeiter , boarded the craft and were piloted away . No shots were fired . Both men were flown to Texas and then different planes flew Kaplan to California and Castro to Guatemala . The Mexican government never initiated extradition proceedings against Kaplan . The escape is told in a book , The 10-Second Jailbreak : The Helicopter Escape of Joel David Kaplan . It also inspired the 1975 action movie Breakout , which starred Charles Bronson and Robert Duvall
October 31 , 1973 Mountjoy Jail Ireland Yes JB O'Hagan Seamus Twomey Kevin Mallon On October 31 , 1973 an IRA member hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot to land in the exercise yard of Dublin 's Mountjoy Jail 's D Wing at 3:40 p.m. , October 31 , 1973 . Three members of the IRA were able to escape : JB O'Hagan , Seamus Twomey and Kevin Mallon . Another prisoner who also was in the prison was quoted as saying , One shamefaced screw apologised to the governor and said he thought it was the new Minister for Defence ( Paddy Donegan ) arriving . I told him it was our Minister of Defence leaving . The Mountjoy helicopter escape became Republican lore and was immortalized by The Helicopter Song , which contains the lines It 's up like a bird and over the city . There 's three men a'missing I heard the warder say
May 24 , 1978 United States Penitentiary , Marion United States No Garrett Brock Trapnell Martin Joseph McNally James Kenneth Johnson 43-year-old Barbara Ann Oswald hijacked a Saint Louis -based charter helicopter and forced the pilot to land in the yard at USP Marion . While landing the aircraft , the pilot , Allen Barklage , who was a Vietnam War veteran , struggled with Oswald and managed to wrestle the gun away from her . Barklage then shot and killed Oswald , thwarting the escape . A few months later Oswald 's daughter hijacked TWA Flight 541 in an effort to free Trapnell
February 27 , 1981 Fleury-Mérogis , Essonne , Ile de France France Yes Gérard Dupré Daniel Beaumont With the help of Serge Coutel , Gérard Dupré and Daniel Beaumont , succeed in the first and double helicopter escape of a French prison , in Fleury-Mérogis ( Essonne ) , the best kept prison of France . The men hijacked a helicopter and its pilot that they rented to fly from Paris to Orléans . The pilot , Claude Fourcade , was taken hostage and was told that they were holding his wife and daughter hostage ( which was not true ) ... The flight turned into Paris - Fleury -Merogis - Porte d'Orléans
May 7 , 1981 Orsainville Prison , Quebec City Canada No Marina Paquet ( hijacker ) Giles Arseneault ( prisoner ) Marina Paquet held a sawed off shotgun against the back of the head of a helicopter pilot . She demanded that he land in the Orsainville prison courtyard , where her boyfriend ( awaiting extradition to California on a murder charge ) was set to escape . The pilot , Brian Jenner , feigned a panic attack , put the helicopter through some rough maneuvers and was then able to convince Paquet , in the back seat of the Jet Ranger , to turn over her shotgun and her knife . Jenner then gave her the choice of any landing spot , except the prison . She chose to go back to the airport . The pilot then explained , in great detail , exactly where they were and where they would be landing on arrival at the Quebec City airport . He added that the police would surely be aware by then , that she had hijacked the helicopter but would not yet be aware that she had given up her arms to the pilot . All the time Jenner was squeezing the transmit button on his cyclic stick and the tower was picking up all the details . The moment they touched down at the airport , the woman bailed from the helicopter but the police , who had been advised of the situation by the control tower , were hiding out all over the place and captured Paquet within seconds
January , 1983 Pentridge ( HM Prison ) Australia No David McMillan Arrests were made for the 1983 attempted helicopter escape from Melbournes Pentridge Prison in Australia . The three , all held on drug-importation charges , had hired a former SAS soldier , then living in the Philippines , to lift the prisoners from the jails tennis court to a nearby van fitted with panels to hide them for the 600 kilometre road trip to Sydney , where a yacht was to take them to Manila . The plan was thwarted when Lord Tony Moynihan , himself an exile in the Philippines , informed the Australian Federal Police , who then ran it as a sting operation . Tony Moynihan would later become an informer against Howard Marks in a Florida trial . Of the accused , only David McMillan and his accountant friend who had visited the prison stood trial . During the hearings , few prosecution witnesses used their real names as they were mostly from Moynihans former West African MI6 unit . Those on trial were convicted and sentenced
December 19 , 1985 Perry Correctional Institution , Pelzer , South Carolina United States Yes James Rodney Leonard William Douglas Ballew Jesse Glenn Smith One murderer , James Rodney Leonard , and two armed robbers , William Douglas Ballew and Jesse Glenn Smith , fled in a helicopter with a pilot and a woman hijacker with a pistol to a getaway car 4 to 5 miles away . The 3-passenger helicopter was so overloaded with 5 occupants that it barely cleared the fence , while flying away in a hail of gunfire that injured one guard . Two other men attempted to escape as well , but either jumped or were pushed off when the pilot told the escapees that the helicopter could not take off . The three escapees were captured on December 23 in Camden County , Georgia
December 31 , 1985 Cândido Mendes penitentiary , Ilha Grande , Rio de Janeiro Brazil Yes José Carlos dos Reis Encina , a.k.a . Escadinha Drug lord Encina was rescued by José Carlos Gregório , aka Gordo , who rented the Bell 47 aircraft under the guise of surveying some lands he intended to buy . Gordo forced the pilot to land and pick up Encina , who had escaped the prison proper earlier . Encina was recaptured three months later after being shot in a firefight
May 26 , 1986 Prison de la Santé France Yes Michel Vaujour Vaujour had 28 years to serve for attempted murder and armed robbery ; this was his fourth escape attempt . He made his way to the roof by threatening guards with a fake pistol and nectarines painted as grenades . On top of the jail he was picked up by his wife Nadine , who had taken helicopter pilot lessons especially for the escape . They landed at a nearby football pitch and fled in a waiting car . Paris-Match published amateur photos of the escape , which was made into a film starring Béatrice Dalle in 1991
November 5 , 1986 Federal Correctional Institution , Dublin United States Yes Samantha Lopez Ronald J. McIntosh walked away from a minimum security prison on October 28 and then rented a helicopter on November 5 . He used the helicopter to free Samantha Lopez from the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin , east of San Francisco . Both were later caught on November 15 when they arrived to pick up wedding rings from a California shopping mall . The authorities were monitoring the account McIntosh used to write the check and the police were waiting for them . Ron McIntosh for his role in the escape was sentenced to 25 years in prison . Samantha Lopez was given five years added to her 50-year sentence for a 1981 bank robbery in Georgia . As they were driven away to their separate prisons McIntosh was able to lean out of a car window and yell , I love you ! to Lopez . Samantha Lopez was released from prison on 20 April 2010
November 23 , 1986 Prigione di Rebibbia , Roma Italy Yes André Bellaïche Gianluigi Esposito Luciano Cipollari A red cross helicopter was hijacked by two gunmen and forced to fly to the maximum-security Rebibbia Prison courtyard . The pilot hovered the helicopter three feet off the courtyard ground while around 50 inmates were exercising . While the hijackers laid covering fire , three inmates tried to board the helicopter . One escapee , Andre Bellaiche , 36 , was a Tunisian-born Frenchman who was in jail for murder and bank robbery . The other escapee , Gianluigi Esposito , 30 , was an arms smuggler accused of providing weapons to Italian terrorists . The third man , Luciano Cipollari , 24 , an Italian extradited from France in 1985 for murder , slipped and fell preventing him from escaping . The helicopter flew to a nearby soccer field scattering an ongoing game . The men ran out of the helicopter and hijacked a car to escape . They later managed to flee Italy , but police was able to track them down and they were both arrested again on 13 13 , 1986 . Esposito later revealed that he had intentionally prevented Cipollari from boarding , because he was just 2 years away from being released
December 10 , 1987 Gartree ( HM Prison ) United Kingdom Yes Sydney Draper John Kendall At 3:16 p.m. on December 10 , 1987 , John Kendall and Sydney Draper were sprung from Gartree 's exercise yard with the aid of a hijacked Bell 206L helicopter . Kendall was a gangland boss serving eight years while Draper was jailed for murder and serving a life sentence . The escape caused great controversy at the time and led to a tightening of security at the jail . Kendall was recaptured 10 days later but Draper remained at large for 13 months
July 11 , 1988 Santa Fe prison United States Yes Mahoney Danny Francis Mitchell Randy Lackey Pilot Charles Bella was hired to fly a real estate agent around the Santa Fe area . As he was flying his Aerospatiale Gazelle helicopter she pulled a gun and forced him to land in the courtyard of the Santa Fe prison . Three inmates jumped in and he flew the aircraft to another site , pursued by a US Customs Service helicopter that was later joined by a state police helicopter . Pursuing helicopters claimed that Bella tried to force them down through aggressive maneuvers . However , they were able to tail him and police were waiting for the helicopter every time it touched down . Two of the prisoners , Francis Mitchell and Randy Lackey , were captured almost right away while Danny Mahoney was later captured with assistance from a canine unit
April 17 , 1989 Federal Holding Facility , Miami , FL United States No Ben Kramer Famous Apache Boat owner and racer Ben Kramer tried to escape by helicopter from the Metropolitan Correctional Center , a Federal Prison ( holding ) in Southwest Miami on April 17 , 1989 . The escape failed when the rookie pilot , Charles Clayton Stevens , hovered 12 inches off the ground in a very tight space ( 200'long by 50 ' wide ) . When the 6'-2 , 240 lb Kramer jumped into the small two seater Bell 47 D-1 ( trainer ) , its rear rotor struck the razor wire , causing it to be uncontrollable . Stevens made an attempt to take off anyway . One of the skids caught on the razor wire , causing the helicopter to catapult over the fence and crash into the prison grounds . Both pilot and escapee sustained extensive injuries . Ben Kramer was serving life without parole for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ( RICO ) charges resulting from drug trafficking , and also pleaded guilty to the murder of fellow boat builder and racer Don Aronow , owner of Cigarette Off Shore Boats
August 19 , 1989 Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility United States Yes Ralph Brown Freddie Gonzales Colorado prison inmates Ralph Brown and Freddie Gonzales were able to escape via helicopter . Two women , Rebecca Brown and Patricia Gonzales chartered a helicopter out of Denver Colorado . Once airborne the women held semi-automatic pistols to pilot Tim Graves head and ordered him to land in the prison yard to pick up the two men . They were recaptured in Holdrege , Nebraska that night after firing shots at law enforcement officers
June 19 , 1990 Kent Penitentiary , British Columbia Canada Yes Robert Ford David Thomas Two prisoners , Robert Ford and David Thomas , escaped when a hijacked helicopter landed in the courtyard . They were captured by the RCMP at Harrison Lake two days later . Correctional Officer R. KIRBY was shot during the incident and survived . The pilot , Fred Fandrich of Valley Helicopters , was not injured . The Bell 206 helicopter was damaged by gunfire from prison guards
1991 Rio Piedras State Penitentiary , Puerto Rico United States Yes William Lane Inmates were able to escape when a helicopter plucked them from the prison . The escape prompted the Puerto Rico House Government Committee to pass a regulation that allowed penal officials to fire on any helicopter aiding an escape attempt
1992 Lyon Prison France Yes - After a successful helicopter escape from this prison , cables were strung across the central yard at five-metre intervals
December 1992 Touraine Central Prison , Tours France No - The would-be escapee was shot dead by prison guards ; three others were wounded
June 17 , 1993 Touraine Central Prison , Tours France No Michel Vaujour Vaujour and his wife were imprisoned in 1991 . A man and woman hijacked a helicopter and held the pilot 's family hostage . The wife alerted police and the prison was locked down before the helicopter arrived . It returned to its base , from where the hijackers escaped in a car