Brazilian police ram moving plane to apprehend smugglers

If you saw it on a TV police show, you would dismiss it as being too far-fetched.
Consider: Machine gun-wielding officers use their car to chase and then ram into a moving plane, smashing off a wing, to stop it from taking to the air.

The reason they did it? The plane contains a gang of drug smugglers.

But, astonishingly, this is a real scenario and the video of it has been posted to the internet.
It is the work of Brazilian Federal Police in Ribeirão Preto.
The understandably shaky camerawork, shot from the car's back seat during the high-speed pursuit, puts the viewer inside the remarkable operation.

As it opens an armed officer hangs out of the window brandishing a large black gun as the car chases down the slow-moving plane down a dust road at a remote airstrip.

He ducks his head back inside the car as the team takes the decision that their only option is to ram the plane to prevent take-off.

The police hit the light-aircraft on the left wing, and plough straight through it, before executing a 180-degree turn that sends dust plumes into the air.

Without hesitation, one of the officers scrambles from the vehicle, machine-gun still in hand, and runs towards the stricken plane, while his colleague lends back up in the car.  

The video cuts off before anyone can emerge from the wreckage of the spun-around aircraft and the camera fades out on a shot from inside the car, briefly revealing the car's smashed windscreen.

The amazing operation allowed the police to arrest five suspects after a month-long investigation.

You can watch the video here.


News source: dailymail.co.uk