Accident of the Twin Otter FAP-205

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Accident of the Twin Otter FAP-205
FAP-205.png

The FAP-205
Accident summary
Accident type Controlled flight into terrain
place Cerro Marta , Coclesito , Panama
date July 31, 1981
Fatalities 7th
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Havilland Canada DH-6 Twin Otter
operator Panamanian Air Force
Mark FAP-205
Departure airport Río Hato Air Force Base
Stopover Penonomé airport
Destination airport Coclesito
Passengers 4th
crew 3
Lists of aviation accidents

On July 31, 1981, a de Havilland Canada DH-6 Twin Otter of the Panamanian Air Force with the registration number FAP-205 had an accident at Cerro Marta, Coclesito, Coclé Province . There were no survivors. Brigadier General Omar Torrijos was also among the victims as the de facto military dictator of Panama. The cause of the accident is still controversial today. According to official reports, there was a pilot error in connection with bad weather conditions, politicians friends and family members assume an attack by the CIA with the help of Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Noriega .

The flight

The Twin Otter took off on July 31, 1981, 10:44 a.m. local time from the Río Hato Air Force Base in Panama . The destination was Coclesito Airport. On board were the three-man aircraft crew and four passengers:

  1. Captain (Capitán) Azael Adames, pilot
  2. Sub-lieutenant Victor Rangel, copilot
  3. Carlos E. Rivera (on-board mechanic)
  4. General Omar Torrijos (passenger)
  5. Sergeant (Sargento) Ricardo Machazek ( Torrijos bodyguard )
  6. Jaime Correas (Torrijos' bodyguard)
  7. Teresa Ferreiro (dental technician)

At 10.55 a.m. the plane landed at Penonomé Airport for a stopover and took off again at 11.40 a.m. The destination Coclesito was only a 15-minute flight away. At the time of the approach to Coclesito, the weather conditions were extremely bad ( rainy season ). At 11.55 a.m. the Twin Otter disappeared from the radar screens in Coclesito. The government kept the machine's disappearance a secret for a day, as local radar surveillance was limited in range.

On August 1, 1981, the government was forced to confirm the machine's disappearance. At 11.30 a.m. with US military aid from the Canal Zone, the first remains of the machine were discovered near Cerro Marta at an altitude of over 3,100 feet. Except for the tail section, the machine was completely destroyed and apparently hit the hill. A state funeral was held for Torrijos on August 4th.

The investigation of the aircraft accident

As a result of investigations by the Panamanian authorities, supported by the FBI , it was found that the machine

  1. pitched at an altitude of 3,100 feet (approx. 945 meters), with a total height of Cerro Marta of 3,432 feet (approx. 1046 meters),
  2. At the time of the accident, visibility was poor due to bad weather,
  3. the accident happened between 11.55 a.m. and 12.05 p.m.,
  4. the pilot had tried at the last moment to discover the runway between the mountains,
  5. the damage to the aircraft was caused by the impact and the subsequent fire in the wreck .

During the investigation, residents of Coclesitos said they heard two explosions but did not see them due to the prevailing fog. The responsible official Tulio Córdoba was informed, but the search team composed of residents did not find anything.

Right from the start of the investigation, rumors emerged that the attack was a political attack, initiated either by the CIA for foreign policy reasons or by Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Noriega for domestic and personal reasons. The investigative commission came to the conclusion that the accident was caused by the pilots:

The cause of the crash was the lack of situational awareness of the pilots in charge regarding vertical navigation, weather conditions, and proximity to terrain, which lead as a consequence to the placing of the airliner into a collision path against the mountain.

It was also determined that the aircraft was in perfect technical condition and that no traces of explosives had been found on the remains.

Criticism of the investigation report

The official investigation report was questioned by both the general public and the victims' families, and the military was accused of manipulating the investigation. The testimony of the residents of Coclesitos was also not included in the final report. Until the end of the 1980s, calls were made to restart the investigations, but these did not take place. While the former American businessman John Perkins claimed in his memoir ("Confessions of an Economic Hit Man") that the CIA had caused a bomb crash in order to advance American interests in Central America , Noriega claimed in his memoir ("America "Prisoner"), Torrijos negotiations with Japanese businessmen regarding the construction of a new Panama Canal had created an anti-attitude towards Torrijos in American circles. In 2009, the former Colonel (Coronel) Roberto Díaz Herrera, one of Panama's most senior and influential military officers and cousin Torrijos in the 1980s, claimed that Noriega was responsible for a machine crash in order to succeed Torrijo. According to Díaz, there was a so-called Torrijos plan for the implementation of the Sandinista revolution, which was supported by the governments of Costa Rica , Colombia and Venezuela . According to this, the literacy campaign planned by the Sandinista in Nicaragua should be run by thousands of Costa Rican teachers, while the funding should be provided by the US Carter government . The Colombian armed forces should build a new Nicaraguan army, which should preferably be occupied with repairing the massive damage caused by the fighting in the revolution and should not pose a threat to neighboring states. The Venezuelan air force was supposed to build a new Nicaraguan air force, while Panama wanted to build a new state police itself. This plan was prevented by the Reagan administration and the "hawks", who pursued a more interventionist policy, together with Noriega. At that time, Noriega was already head of the Panamanian (military) intelligence service G-2. The weather conditions were bad, but by no means unusual for the region. The pilot was experienced and familiar with the local conditions. The statements of the local residents suggested that the machine had already exploded in the air. In addition, Noriega had control of the investigation. The Dominican politician Juan Bosch told Torrijo's brother Moises that the CIA, in collaboration with some Panamanians, was responsible for a crash. As early as 1981 Torrijos bodyguard and factotum José de Jesús Martínez told the British writer Graham Greene that it was an assassination attempt : There was a bomb in the plane. I KNOW there was a bomb in the plane, but I can't tell you why over the telephone. Martínez expressed this suspicion again in 1992 in the documentary The Panama Deception ; Torrijos was a security risk for US Central America policy, especially in the context of the Contra War .

literature

  • Roberto Díaz Herrera: Estrellas clandestinas , Lima, Peru 2009. ISBN 978-612-00-0031-1
  • Graham Greene: Getting to know the general. The Story of an Involvement , Harmondsworth et al. a. (Penguin Books) 1986.
  • José de Jesús Martínez: Mi General Torrijos , Havana (Casa de las Américas) 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (Díaz 2009, p. 101ff.)
  2. ↑ Díaz 2009, pp. 127-132
  3. ^ Graham Greene, Getting to know the General , p. 9

Coordinates: 8 ° 41 ′ 25.1 ″  N , 80 ° 34 ′ 25.7 ″  W.