aviation

Copter co-pilot recounts details of ill-flated flight

Carrasco explained why pilot Juan Delgado had to change his original flight plan.

Delgado considered landing in a nearby stadium or at the site of the old RPC radio offices.

The last thing the co-pilot of the ill-fated SAN-100 helicopter remembers of last Thursday's crash is closing his eyes and experiencing a pause. Then, moments later, he saw two men approaching to offer him help. Broken glass covered his face. He wanted to stand and walk on his own, but when he couldn't, he was picked up and carried. After that, Ernaldo Carrasco's memory fails him.

Carrasco, 24, was the only survivor of the accident that killed 11 of the 12 passengers aboard the helicopter after it plummeted into a warehouse in Calidonia.

Carrasco had not spoken about the incident until yesterday, when Maruquel Castroverde, the government prosecutor assigned to the investigation, interviewed him in his hospital room in the Hospital Nacional.

Castroverde said that despite his traumas, Carrasco was lucid, coherent and in good enough spirits to give his account of the accident.

Carrasco's description of events confirmed the preliminary findings of the technical board of the Autoridad Aeronáutica Civil (AAC), which surmised that one of the helicopter's engines had failed, causing it to drop suddenly.

Besides throwing light on some of the technical aspects of the crash, Carrasco's testimony helped to answer questions about why the pilot it changed the helicopter's flight route from the Miramar Hotel to Albrook Airport.

According to Carrasco, the helicopter's security system alerted the crew about a failure in one of the engines just as pilot Juan Delgado was starting to land on the helipad at the Hotel Miramar.

Strong tail winds prevented Delgado from completing the landing, forcing him to resume flight.

Delgado reported the engine trouble to the control tower at Aeropuerto Marcos A. Gelabert in Albrook, where he intended to make an emergency landing.

Carrasco said that Delgado had also considered landing at the Estadio Juan Demóstenes Arosemena, or at the site of the old RPC radio offices, but that he didn't have time to reach any of those places before the helicopter crashed.

Carrasco told Castroverde that before taking off from Tocumen Airport to fly to Colón, the helicopter went through all of the review procedures required by international standards. In fact, he said, the aircraft showed no sign of distress between Colón and Tocumen or between Colón and the Hotel Miramar. The engine trouble showed up only when Delgado tried to land the aircraft.

That information, explained Castroverde, and everything related to the helicopter's maintenance records before the accident, is contained in the flight log that was delivered to AAC authorities.

The Ministro de Gobierno y Justicia, Daniel Delgado Diamante, said that an initial report on the causes of the accident will be made in two weeks.