The 1981 Panama Air Force Twin Otter crashes occurred on July 31, 1981, when de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter from the Panama Air Force, with the FAP-205 identity code, crashed in Marta Hill, in the community Coclesito, in bad weather conditions while on the final approach to the airport. All seven people on board, including General Omar Torrijos Herrera, who led the country's military dictatorship between 1968 and 1981, were killed.
The investigation into the accident was surrounded by controversy and speculation about how the plane crashed. The accident happened shortly after Ronald Reagan served as President of the United States and three months after Ecuadorian President Jaime RoldÃÆ'³s Aguilera died in similar circumstances.
The cause of the accident remains debatable.
Video 1981 Panamanian Air Force Twin Otter crash
Ceritanya
At 10:44 am on July 31, 1981, FAP-205 departed from Rio Hato air base, heading to Coclesito airport, to visit the people who lived there. In control were captain Azael Adames and sub-lieutenant Victor Rangel as co-pilots. The passengers on the flight were General Omar Torrijos Herrera, mechanic Carlos E. Rivera, Sergeant Ricardo Machazek, assistant bodyguard Jaime Correa, and dentist Teresa Ferreiro. The plane landed at Penonomà © Airport at 10.55 am for a stopover, which ended at 11:40 am. At that time, the flight was only 15 minutes from the final destination.
There is a lot of controversy about how the plane crashed. It is known that the plane attempted to land at Coclesito in very bad weather, and disappeared from the radar between 11:55 am and 12:05 pm, but ATC did not declare a state of emergency for almost a day, due to the limited nature of the Panama radar coverage at the time. The government knew about the loss of the aircraft, but remained silent until the rescue mission was held.
But on August 1, the media began reporting the loss of aircraft and the government was forced to declare the physical disappearance of Torrijos. At 11:30 pm on the same day, the Panama authorities, with US military backing, found the first remains of the plane at Bukit Marta, 3,100 feet above sea level, but there was little to be made because all seven people in it, including Torrijos, killed. The plane, but its tail part, was crushed by a collision to the mountain
News of Torrijos's death caused a crisis in the military dictatorship and national mourning in Panama, especially by the poor, as Torrijos's actions and popular reforms gave them relatively more opportunities and advantages. On August 4, a state funeral was held for him at Casco Viejo Metropolitan Cathedral. He was buried in Casco Viejo for a short time, but then moved to a tomb in the Canal Zone in Fort Amador, near Panama City.
Maps 1981 Panamanian Air Force Twin Otter crash
Investigation
After recovering the corpse, the investigation was initiated by the Panama and FBI authorities. Initially, the researchers had some information about the circumstances at the time of the accident:
- Bukit Marta has a height of 3,432 feet and the plane crashed at an altitude of 3,100 feet.
- Visibility is low, because of bad conditions.
- The accident occurred between 11:55 and 12:05 pm.
- In the final moments of flight, pilots try to see the airport runway between the mountains.
- The damage that appears on the plane comes from a crash and posthumous fires that erupt.
During the investigation, the people living in Coclesito claimed they heard two explosions but did not see anything, because of the foggy conditions that surrounded the city that day and told Tulio CÃÆ'³rdoba representatives of what they heard. This information leads to the formation of men's and women's rescue squads living in the city to find the source of the explosion, but find nothing.
Speculation and report release
Some people told the researchers that the FAP-205 accident was a murder plot. Some people say that Noriega was involved in this, because of his desire to kill Torrijos, to rule the country and the Panama National Guard (which later became the Panamanian Defense Forces). Others say that the CIA is to blame, as they have planned the killing of Torrijos and Jaime RoldÃÆ'³s with a plan called Falcon in Aviation. Researchers deny the statement, and qualify them as "wrong".
In 1983, accident investigations concluded that the pilot in charge of the flight was blamed for the lack of situational awareness and poor decision making, which caused the accident.
The cause of this accident is the lack of situational awareness from the pilot in charge of vertical navigation, weather conditions, and proximity to the terrain, which causes as a consequence of placing the plane into the collision course against the mountain.
Also, they concluded that the aircraft was in perfect condition at the time of the accident.
The aircraft had no mechanical damage at the time of the accident and there were no signs of explosive residue and fuel contamination detected during the inspection of the wreckage, as well as the remains of fires on the plane.
Criticism and controversy
The general public and the victims' families did not accept the conclusion of the final report, and they accused the military government of covering it up; In addition, witnesses at Coclesito complained that the investigators â € <â € After the fall of the military dictatorship in Panama in 1989, in a pre-trial trial in Miami in May 1991, Manuel Noriega's lawyer, Frank Rubino, was quoted as saying that "General Noriega has a proprietary document showing the attempted murder of him [Noriega] and Mr. Torrijos by "The documents were not allowed as evidence in the hearing, because the presiding judge agreed with the US government's claim that their public denominations would violate the Secret Information Procedure Act. Recently, former businessman John Perkins was accused in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man that Torrijos was murdered by American interests, possessing bombs planted on his plane (by operators organized by the CIA). The alleged motive was that some American business leaders and politicians strongly opposed negotiations between Torrijos and a group of Japanese businessmen led by Shigeo Nagano, who promoted the idea of ​​a new, larger, ocean-level channel for Panama. Manuel Noriega, at America's Prisoner, claims that this negotiation has generated a very unfortunate response among Americans. However, these facts are not enough to initiate a new investigation for further evidence. As a result, the case of the FAP-205 accident was declared unsolved due to lack of evidence.
Aftermath
After the accident, Panama Tocumen International Airport was renamed Omar Torrijos International Airport until 1989, when the United States invaded the country to overthrow Noriega and its original name was re-established. The mountainous area where plane debris can be found is now part of Omar Torrijos National Park, which opened in 1986 and is a major tourist attraction for its natural climbing route. The rural house where Torrijos talks with the Coclesito people and holds his political meeting is now a memorial museum.
The day of Torrijos's death is commemorated annually by the PRD's political parties, along with the peasants and the indigenous Panama classes.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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