Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Good night and welcome to this special broadcast of RCN news
remembering today an act that painfully marked Colombia's recent history:
The mid-air destruction 20 years ago
of an Avianca jetliner with more than 100 passengers.
Along with magnicides, car bombs and selective assasinations
this tragedy happened when the airplane just departed from Bogota and shaked the country's foundation:
this was another cold-blood killing of the Medellin drug cartel.
[Attack on mid-air]
Early in the morning on November 27th 1989,
radio stations began to broadcast newsflash about some whitnessess
having seen an airplane explode above the town of Soacha
After 15 minutes there was a total confirmation about the disaster
being this the starting point of this chapter on the war
that drug cartels declared against Colombia.
I hear a loud *** when I saw the plane coming with failures
and then it started to emit sparkles and then exploded
and one part came down to that side and the other fell right here.
A rocky mountain on jurisdiction of the city of Soacha was the tombstone
for 107 passengers that boarded earlier the 727-100 Avianca jetliner
en route from Bogota to Cali.
What remained on the HK-1803 was nothing more than retorted metal strips
and soft human tissues that were dispersed in a 2 mile radius.
Over eucalyptus tree branches were hanging clothing, human remains and other objects
that came out of the bags as they were ripped off during the explosion.
The more remebered image of the macabre landscape is this:
a piece of no more than 20 feet of fuselage that was not destroyed on the explosion.
According to the way the remains fell it is possible to deduct there was a mid-air explosion.
The bomb explosion, which was inside a suitcase and located behind a seat
ignited fuel vapors from one of the fuel tanks
starting a second explosion that destroyed everything on the air.
107 people died.
The Medellín cartel, leaded by Pablo Escobar, achieved their objective
using a C-4 explosive charge.
While this happened in Soacha, on the Eldorado airport control tower everything was yet unknown.
At that time the HK-1803 was one of the most modern airships.
We talked with the Air Traffic Controller
who held the last dialogue with the pilot before the explosion.
At 7:30 in the morning the skies were clear and there sparse air traffic.
Because of that, jorge Luis Gaitan, the ATC in charge of guiding
the pilot from its take off to the Cali ATC airspace
believed it would be a flawless day.
The now retired ATC, remembered he followed the plane on the radar screen when something unusual arised.
I realized that he was not there anymore
I didn't have its radar signal so I called the plane to verify its position.
According to this man who today is sought as an expert on air catastrophes
an accident possibility on one of the most modern airplanes was near impossible.
The first thing I thought it was a radar failure, not on the plane but on the radar.
He tried once again to comunicate with the pilot until against all odds the bad news arrived:
2 minutes later a phone call was made to a supervisor
I don't remember if it were the civil defense or the Soacha firefighters
telling us there was a plane that fell of over the city hills.
The image of the Avianca Boeing taking off towards Cali
will remain forever on the memories of the ATC that held the last communication
between the tower and the airplane crew.
I was in Bogota; it was an unfergotable tragedy for any Colombian.
It was an act that we all wish never to happen again.
20 years later 3 of the rescue team members returned to the site
where over the next 3 days they had the task of recovering the bodies.
That morning they headed towards Soacha because their superiors told them
there were people alive to rescue but what they encountered was undescriptible.
The remainings of the plane were sparced on that hill and behind it:
it was full of bodies and suitcases.
For them it was to go back to one of those stories plagged with sound and horrible images,
I found body remains on the trees.
When someone shaked your arms and told you
"Please it's my daughter, it's my daugther she was going to Cali and almost didn't catch the flight...it's my daughter'
They were among the first on the scene because they were close to the canoas farm near Soacha.
We heard the explosion and view a smoke trail.
The ones who live on the sorroundings still have clear memories on the plane falling off in pieces
I looked the plane go by and suddenly it exploded like in a fuel can explosion and fell off.
Rescuers believed they would find a great ammount of injured.
In fact we bring first aid and rescue equipment
It was a hard mission due to several reasons:
when we arrived the peasants didn't allowed us to get closer, they had looted most of the bodies.
We finally arrived after 45 minutes.
But the most dofficult was to confront the victim's families.
There was a woman about 75 years old
asking for one of her sons, on what hospital he was in and how they can find him.
Despite having passed 20 years, these rescuers and neighbors
still get moved with this barbaric act that nobody imagined.
On several parts of the country we find some of the victim's families of this demential act ordered by Pablo Escobar.
There are a lot of paradoxes: for instance, some passengers didn't have to board that flight
and a man was ready to fly with her wife but a last minute issue stopped him to board.
The families guarded silence since then as they watched how the investigation was covered with a veal of impunity.
For some of the victims family members the death of their beloved ones seemed as an unknow date with terrorism.
Some of them didnt even had to fly on that plane.
he had two tickets: he purchased one and later on the company someone handed him an unused ticket
when you could fly without changing names on the tickets.
So I decided that I wouldn't fly with her but later that day
so I kept the tickets on my pocket and yes, somehow I saved my life.
At the end, death find them 3 minutes after take off
and 107 victims more were added to the bloody trails of terrorism.
Being with him on his departure and 45 minutes later he was on pieces.
I left very early that day
and whispered to her "good bye my love, i'll see you tonight"
I never saw her again.
And the drama was repeated 107 time more:
There was a young watchman that told me
"an Avianca jet fell off" so I yelled to him: "Nacho was in that flight"
but he replied "No, there were two planes on that route at the same time"
but no, I knew Nacho was dead.
20 years later for many, time has not faded away the pain.
It's like a mark, like a scar that we will die with
So many untold words...
...I love you, I care for you
... You are my idol, my hero...
...you are the best in life.
Their fight is to be sure that despite some of them have forgiven, not many more have to
only on the hope that crimes as this one don't repeat ever.
With anger you don't resucitate anyone
You forgive but you don't forget.