The DeHavilland Twin Otter FAP-205 involved in the crash at an airport around Panama |
|
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | July 31, 1981 |
| Type | unsolved crash (Bombing with in-flight break up suspected) |
| Site | Marta Hill, Coclesito, near Coclé province, Panama |
| Passengers | 5 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Fatalities | 7 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | DeHavilland Twin Otter |
| Operator | Panamanian Air Force |
| Tail number | HP-FAP-205 |
| Flight origin | Rio Hato Airport |
| Stopover | Penonomé Airport |
| Destination | Coclesito Airport |
The Panamanian Air Force FAP-205 crash occurred in July 31, 1981 when a DeHavilland Twin Otter, owned by the Panamanian Air Force and registered as FAP-205, crashed in the Marta Hill, in the community of Coclesito in very bad weather while on final approaching to the airport and killing all 7 people, including general Omar Torrijos Herrera, who lead the country's military dictatorship between 1969 and 1981. His death caused a crisis in the country, which lasted until December 1989. The investigations about this crash was surrounded by controversy and speculations about the circumstances of how the plane crashed. The crash occurred short after Ronald Reagan assumed as president of United States and 3 months after Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera died of similar circumstances. This crash remains unsolved since 1981.
Contents |
At 10:44 am of the morning of July 31, 1981, the FAP-201 took off from the Rio Hato air base to Coclesito airport for a visit to the people who were living there. At the controls of the plane was captain Azael Adames and sub-lieutenant Victor Rangel as the co-pilot. The passengers of the flight was: general Omar Torrijos Herrera, mechanist Carlos E. Rivera, Sergeant Ricardo Machazek, the assistant of the bodyguards Jaime Correa and the dentist Teresa Ferreiro. The plane landed at Penonomé Airport at 10:55 am for a stopover, which lasted at 11:40 am. At that time, the flight was only 15 minutes from his final destination.
There's much controversy about how it crashed, it is known that the plane was trying to land at Coclesito in very bad weather, and it disappeared from radar between 11:55 and 12:05 in the afternoon, but the ATC didn't declare an emergency for nearly a day, because of the limited nature of Panama's radar coverage at the time. The government did know about the disappearance of the plane, but remained silent until the rescue mission was organized. But in August 1, the media begun to inform to the people about the disappearance of the plane and the government was forced to declare the physical disappearance of Torrijos. At 11:30 pm of that day, the authorities with the support of U.S military, found the crash site in Marta Hill at 3,100 feet below the sea level, but it was little to make because the plane was destroyed by the crash with the mountain and posthumous fire and all 7 people, including Torrijos, died instantly.
The news about Torrijos death caused an crisis in the military dictatorship and a national mourning around Panama, especially in the poverty area, because Torrijos at the time of his government in the country, it gave more opportunities and advantages to them. In August 4, a state funeral was made for him in the Casco Viejo Cathedral. He was buried briefly in Casco Viejo, but later transferred to a mausoleum in the Canal Zone at Fort Amador, near Panama City.
After the recovery of the bodies was made, the investigations began by Panamanian authorities and the FBI. At the beginning, investigators had some information about things at the time of the accident:
During the investigations, the people who live in Coclesito claimed that they heard two explosions but see nothing, because of the conditions in that day and informed to the representative Tulio Córdoba. This information led to form a rescue squadron of men and women who live in the town, in order to find the source of the explosion, but found nothing. However, they complained that the investigators didn't put importance about their testimony and it was not added in the investigation.
In addition, other people told investigators that the FAP-205 accident was actually an assassination plot. Some say that Noriega was involved in this, because he wanted to rule the country and the National Guard of Panama. Others say that the CIA was to blame for this, because they had planned the assassination of Torrijos and Jaime Roldós with a plan called Falcon in Flight. But anyway, the researchers rejected those statements. In 1983, the inquiry who investigated the accident concluded that the plane had no mechanical failure, no residues of explosives were detected, fuel contamination was discarded and the possibility of explosion or fire in flight as well. But the major cause of this accident was controlled flight into terrain by pilot error due to poor visibility and spatial disorientation.
This last conclusion was not accepted by the public inquiry and the families of the loved ones who died in that accident. They reclaimed during the last years of the dictatorship that the investigations should be opened again and find the real cause of the FAP-205 crash, because they consider that as a big injustice. But these documents went missing during the U.S. invasion of Panama and never found.
After the fall of the military dictatorship in Panama in 1989, in pre-trial hearings in Miami in May 1991, Manuel Noriega's attorney, Frank Rubino, was quoted as saying that"General Noriega has in his possession documents showing attempts of assassinations to him (Noriega) and Mr. Torrijos by secret agencies of the United States, such as the CIA."[1] Those documents were not allowed as evidence in trial, because the presiding judge agreed with the U.S. government's claim that their public mention would violate the Classified Information Procedures Act. More recently, former businessman John Perkins alleges in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that Torrijos was assassinated by American interests, who had a bomb planted aboard his aircraft (by CIA organized operatives).[2] The alleged motive is that some American business leaders and politicians strongly opposed the negotiations between Torrijos and a group of Japanese businessmen led by Shigeo Nagano, who were promoting the idea of a new, larger, sea-level canal for Panama. Manuel Noriega, in America's Prisoner, claims that these negotiations had evoked an extremely unfavorable response from American circles.
However, these testimonies and quotes were not accepted in the investigation and the FAP-205 crash case was declared officially unsolved, because of lack of proofs that could explain the theory of a bomb was inside of the plane and exploded.
After the accident, Panama's Tocumen International Airport was renamed Omar Torrijos International Airport, which lasted for 9 years. After the invasion of 1989 by United States, the original name was re-established. The area where the plane crashed is now part of the "Omar Torrijos National Park" which was opened in 1986 and is a big attraction to tourists for natural hikings. The rural house where Torrijos talked to the people of Coclesito and made his political reunions is now a museum and each July 31 of each year, the town of Coclesito and the PRD pays homage to the man who gave opportunities for farmers in his administration.
|
||||||||||||