OIJ Tries To
Fill Missing Fives Hours Of Crashed
Helicopter
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OIJ Tries To
Fill Missing Fives Hours Of Crashed
Helicopter
With the theft of the GPS unit from the
crashed helicopter, the Organismo de
Investigación Judicial (OIJ), is faced with
the task of filling in the five hours since
the helicopter left the Tobías Bolaños
airport in Pavas and crashed in the Cerro de
la Muerte, with 395 kilos of cocaine on
board.
Jorge Rojas, director of the OIJ, said the
questions of where the helicopter went, how
long it stayed in other places, where there
others travelling the helicopter on that day
and so on, as investigators tru to determine
the cause of the crash.
One very important question for
investigators to find answers to is, who
took the aircraft's GPD unit?
According to a report by the Spanish
language daily, La Nación, on Saturday,
Edgar Arguedas, the pilot who died in the
crash, desperately went looking for fuel the
morning of the fatal crash, beginning at
5:30am and not until after 6am was he able
to fill the 80 gallon tank of the helicopter
at the Pavas airport.
That amount of fuel would allow the
helicopter to fly only three hours.
Rojas said that near the crash site were
found several 20 litre "pichingas" (plastic
containers) that was used to carry fuel.
The head of the Operaciones Aeronáuticas de
Aviación Civil, Álvaro Vargas, told La
Nación that the helicopter left the Pavas
airport at 6:10am, headed for Quepos and
then for Turrialba.
The next report by Arguedas to the PTobías
Bolaños control tower was at 8:50am,
reporting that he was some 25 kilometres
south of San Isidro de El General and headed
for Turrialba.
The last signal recorded by the control
tower wa at 11:10am when the aircraft's
emergency distress signal activated.
In addition to investigating the movements
of the helicopter and its pilot, OIJ
investigators are also trying to reconstruct
the scene of when first contact was made by
rescue personnel of the downed helicopter.
Director Rojas said the first Cruz Roja (Red
Cross) unit lest Saturday (May 1) morning
and it wasn't until Sunday afternoon, or 30
hours later, that they reached the crash
site.
The director said it is unclear who exactly
was the first to reach the crash site. "Many
people closer could have reached the crash
site", said Rojas.
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