He was searching for a clearing to make an emergency touchdown when he misplaced management of the aircraft, Colombia’s Civil Aviation Authority concluded final 12 months in a last report on the incident. HK 2803 barreled by way of the tree cover and plowed nostril first into the bottom. Pictures from that crash are strikingly related to people who could be taken of the identical plane after the Could 2023 accident.
The three folks on board for the July 2021 humanitarian flight — the pilot, a physician and a affected person, unnamed within the report — survived that crash. However the 41-year-old plane suffered “substantial” harm, in keeping with the civil aviation authority. That’s the second of three potential scores within the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group scale. The final is “destroyed.”
It is not uncommon for even considerably broken plane to be rebuilt and returned to service, aviation officers say. Small planes, nicely maintained, may be flown safely for many years, supplied they cross annual inspections. International requirements require them to be airworthy.
HK 2803, which is owned and operated by Avianline Charters of Villavicencio, Colombia, was repaired utilizing components imported from america, in keeping with Avianline proprietor Freddy Ladino. It started flying once more this 12 months as an air taxi.
Ladino mentioned the plane, which may promote for greater than $1 million new, had proved itself. “The aircraft had two months flying and 130 hours,” he instructed The Washington Put up in a WhatsApp message. “So, any anomaly from the earlier incident is discarded.”
When the aircraft crashed once more Could 1, the plight of the 4 Indigenous kids, aged 11 months to 14 years previous, drew worldwide consideration. The siblings, who misplaced their mom within the crash, drew on historic information of the jungle to persevere on their very own till they had been rescued by Colombian forces and Indigenous searchers June 9.
However pilots who fly within the distant Amazon — the place small planes are sometimes the one technique of provides, transport and medical evacuation — mentioned the crash carries one other lesson: Troublesome routes in previous plane that may fly a number of occasions a day make their career unusually harmful.
Thirty-one air taxis have crashed in Colombia since 2018, in keeping with the nation’s accident investigation directorate. Forty-four folks died in these incidents. The pilots in each crashes of HK 2803 had been competent to fly the plane, data present, and no indications of engine malfunction had been beforehand recognized by or reported to authorities.
Former Avianline pilot José Miguel Calderón, a pal of the pilot who was killed within the Could crash, described the challenges of flying within the area: “We fly day by day, all day lengthy, as much as six flight hours every day.” Calderón mentioned pilot Hernán Murcia may have declined the flight. However turning down flight hours means dropping cash.
In some instances, Calderón mentioned, pilots can not afford to say no. It was not Murcia’s flip to fly the Cessna 206 on Could 1. “He was such good individual,” his spouse, Olga Vizcaíno, mentioned. “He obtained a last-minute name to alter his schedule, and he mentioned sure.”
Murcia took off at 6:42 a.m. from an improvised airport in Araracuara, a small city deep within the Colombian Amazon, with clear skies. Nonetheless, an hour into the flight, the engine failed. Murcia radioed Mayday to Colombia’s air visitors management system. He was going to search for a area to land. Or a river.
“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday 2803, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” Murcia mentioned, in keeping with a preliminary crash report. “I’ve the engine at minimal. I’m going to search for a area.”
However the engine quickly picked up energy once more, in keeping with the report, and Murcia determined to proceed the journey. At 7:44 a.m., he mentioned the issue was again. “I’m going to the touch down on water,” he radioed.
It’s the final document of his voice. Killed within the crash had been Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, the 34-year-old mom to the youngsters who survived; Herman Mendoza Hernández, a 57-year-old Indigenous chief; and Murcia, the 55-year-old pilot.
Two months later, his widow desires solutions. “I really feel he was a martyr of aviation,” Vizcaíno mentioned. “I’m positive he tried his finest however determined to sacrifice himself to save lots of the youngsters.” His final phrases to her: A request that she hug her two daughters for him. Her voice breaks. “He did one thing heroic,” she mentioned. “That’s partly why the children lived.”
