Sebastián Piñera: the helicopter that crashed into Lake Ranco is raised to the surface

The helicopter in which the former president Chilean Sebastian Piñera suffered a fatal accident after falling into Lake Ranco, in southern Chile, was refloated this Saturday afternoon from a depth of 28 meters by personnel from the Chilean Navy in collaboration with divers from a private company.

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Extraction work began early in the morning and continued throughout the day. In addition to the Navy and private rescuers, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), Public Ministry of the Los Ríos and Carabineros region.

According to the local press, the barge that transported the helicopter (covered with a kind of black blanket) will be taken to the port of Futrono, at the foot of the same lake, so that the aircraft can be delivered to the DGAC, in charge of transferring it to the commune of Cerrillos, in the Metropolitan region, where it is located the capital. In turn, the Carabineros (Military Police) will be responsible for ensuring security during the transfer.

The helicopter that Piñera piloted, a Robinson R44 CC-PHP board owned since 2006ran to the Ranco Lakean exclusive resort more than 800 kilometers south of the capital, where he spent his summers with his family.

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The latest expert reports released by the local press reveal that there were no calls from the aircraft to the DGAC, nor to the Port Authority. Ranco Lake and because it is a small aircraft, it does not have a flight recorder or ‘black box’, which could provide information about the last seconds that the helicopter was in the air.

“Everything went very quickly”

One of the former president’s companions on the fateful trip, Bautistic Guerrero – son of his friend Ignacio, who traveled as co-piloto–, explained in a brief interview given on Friday to a local media outlet that “everything happened very quickly”.

“Due to poor visibility, we turned to where we could see the coast better and there we fell into the water,” said Bautista Guerrero, 23, from the cemetery where the former president’s body was buried.

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“The last thing I heard was that (Piñera) would change course,” he added, before detailing that at the moment he fell into the water he opened the door, took off his seat belt and “when the helicopter filled (with water),” He left. .

Piñera, who governed for two non-consecutive terms (2010-2014 and 2018-2022), is the second former president to die after the return to democracy in 1990 (the first was the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, leader of the Chilean transition, in 2016) and was a controversial figure in the country.

Possessor of one of the greatest fortunes in Pepperduring his mandates he had to manage rebuilding the country after the devastating 2010 earthquakethe epic rescue of the 33 miners, the success of the vaccination campaign during the pandemic and the social outbreak of 2019, one of the darkest points of his administration.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.