page_title: 1 May 2015 Jalisco attacks
section_title: Helicopter attack
hierarchical_section_title: 1 May 2015 Jalisco attacks / Helicopter attack
caption_attribution_description: Español: Escudo CFE 3D
context_page_description: On 1 May 2015, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel carried out a series of attacks in Jalisco, Mexico, and four adjacent states to prevent the capture of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, their suspected leader. The operation began early that morning in Villa Purificación, where four Mexican Air Force and Federal Police helicopters spotted a CJNG convoy protecting El Mencho. As one of the helicopters flew over the convoy, the CJNG members shot it down using rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Nine law enforcement officers died as a result of the attack, and multiple others were wounded. This was the first incident in the Mexican Drug War in which organized crime groups shot down an aircraft.
  As the government extended its crackdown on the CJNG, it issued its highest security alert level and coordinated municipal, state, and federal security forces. The CJNG responded to the offensive by hijacking 39 buses, trucks, and cars throughout western Mexico, setting them on fire, and using them to block roads and highways in multiple locations. They also burned several gas stations, banks, and businesses.
context_section_description: Before dawn at around 6:30 a.m. on 1 May 2015, an armed convoy from the CJNG made their way from Casimiro Castillo to Villa Purificación via dirt roads. The vehicles drove with their headlights off to avoid detection by the Mexican Air Force and the Federal Police (PF), who were doing air surveillance of the area in four helicopters. One of the vehicles was equipped with rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers. As the helicopters flew over the convoy, the CJNG units opened fire. One of the helicopters, a Cougar EC725 carrying eighteen passengers, was hit on its tail with a Russian-made RPG-27 rocket launcher. Once hit, the helicopter spun several times in the air as it tried to maneuver its way back into trajectory. It then fell at a distance from where it was struck and exploded. The assailants fired six missiles at the helicopter and hit it twice; the gunmen tried shooting down another helicopter, but missed. The CJNG gunmen then attempted to execute any remaining living passengers. However, military reinforcements in the air prevented the gunmen from getting close to the collision scene and forced them to retreat. Nine passengers were killed as a result of the airstrike: eight from the Mexican Army and one from the PF. Some of the soldiers killed were part of the Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales, the elite special forces unit of the Army. The other passengers were taken to the Regional Military Hospitals in Guadalajara to receive medical attention. Their health conditions were not made public.
  The day of the attack, the Mexican government confirmed that three military men were killed and three Army soldiers were missing, while the remaining twelve passengers (ten from the Army and two from the PF) were recorded as wounded. During the first 24 hours, their search was contained in a 100 metres (330 ft) radius, but investigators widened the search area when the missing men were not found. On 4 May, the government confirmed that it had located the victims of the attack. They had to identify their corpses by conducting DNA tests as the bodies has been torn into pieces from the helicopter's explosion. This increased the death toll to six. On 6 May, the seventh passenger from the Army died of cardiac arrest as a result of the wounds he suffered from the helicopter's fall. The following day, one of the PF passengers died from his wounds. On 10 May, the ninth and final victim of the attack, a soldier from the Army, died at a hospital. Authorities confirmed that four other passengers had been discharged from the hospital after treatment. Five more remained in the hospital receiving medical attention.
  Following the helicopter attack, the PF and military personnel cordoned the area and conducted a thorough search of the premises. They initially discovered four abandoned vehicles that they suspected were owned by the perpetrators. In the vehicles, investigators discovered military uniforms with the insignia "CJNG Special Forces High Command" with five embedded stars. No immediate arrests were made. The Army seized 15 assault rifles, 6 handguns, 2 RPG launchers, 2 LAW rocket launchers, 10 rocket launcher missiles, 5 hand grenades, 92 chargers for multiple weapons, and 3,800 cartridges of different weapon calibers. Possession of several of the above weapons was illegal under Mexican law. Authorities also seized radio communication equipment, several bullet-proof vests, and nine vehicles. One of the vehicles was equipped with tools to carry a RPG launcher. Investigators handed these items over to the SEIDO, Mexico's anti-organized crime investigatory agency. At the helicopter collision scene, several Army soldiers made a cross with wires and tied it to a tree close to where their comrades died. The cross had the logo of the special forces unit.
  The smoke from the helicopter's crash lasted a few hours, and several of the helicopter's pieces scattered as far as 250 metres (820 ft) from each other. About 24 hours after the crash, the Army reached the crash site and cordoned off the area to allow investigators to collect forensic evidence. 
caption: Logo of the Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales, the elite Army branch involved in the attack
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