"Good flight, hunter": the emotional tribute to the Air Force pilot who died in an accident in Córdoba

Oscar Flores

08/07/2020 - 7:01

• Clarín.com
• Society

"The Bug was excellent, reserved, destined for success. Our pain is not just because of the physical loss but because of what was lost in the Air Force." The trembling words belong to Mario Raúl Francisconi, author of a book dedicated to the pilots who fought in the Falklands War and friend of Gonzalo Fabián Britos Venturini (34), the young man who died Wednesday in Córdoba in a plane crash.

"Gonzalito was the son of an Air Force NCO and he studied at the base (in Paraná). From the age of 14 he dreamed of being a pilot . He flew as much as he could, from a simple Cesna to the last Falcon," recalls this rude man and Giant who at times is moved to tears when he talks to Clarín by video call.

Mario together with other friends created the Peña del Tejo in Paraná where they meet with glories of Argentine aviation. For example, there are Air Force veterans who fought in the South Atlantic. Britos also joined these gatherings of veteran pilots each time he traveled from the Villa Reynolds V Air Brigade.

"He always listened to old veterans and their stories, but when he talked about his flights and his filming, he left us speechless, " recalls Mario.

Gonzalo Fabián Britos Venturini and Mario Raúl Francisconi.

The captain was a fan of the feats filmed from his A4 AR plane . They say that for the G20 meeting an American pilot valued his edition when he placed a film camera at the base of the ship and filmed the landing in the foreground and the complete edition was accompanied by the images of two others who were tied to its hull.

In tribute to this "young Falcon", Mario wrote him a text entitled "Good Flight, dear Gonzalo" and published on social networks. 

"'Bug' dear, we are devastated with your departure. How are we going to overcome the members of the Peña del" Tejo ", of which you were an Honorary Member , this coup. We will no longer be able to see each other at Juanfe or the Veterans Center Malvinas, or in the Maipú to tell us about your experience in your beloved A-4AR Fightinghawk ", begins the story. 

Gonzalo Fabián Britos Venturini, upon receiving a handkerchief that identifies the flight system to which he belongs from Sebastián Ardiles, son of José Pepe Ardiles, war veteran of the Malvinas.

Then he mentions those films that gave so much to talk about. "Those cameras that you put in your helmet and in the cabin and that showed the departures, flights and landings ... your flights in the mountains ... at the Summit of the 20 ... the American's surprise at the camera below of the plane and it showed the moment of the coupling ... I had never seen it, "he recalled.

The accident in which Britos Venturini died was registered at 10.05 on Wednesday, when the plane crashed to the ground about 10 kilometers north of Villa Valeria, over a sector of the La Primavera establishment, almost on the border with the province of San Luis.

The young man managed to eject himself from the plane, but moments after that maneuver he died of a serious injury to the bone marrow of the cervical spine, as determined by the preliminary result of the autopsy.

"How much pain ... our feelings and your qualities as a pilot and excellent person cannot be expressed in words. (...) He carried the patch that you gave me at the last meeting of the Peña stuck in my backpack. You will always be in our hearts ", he wrote and said goodbye with the phrase: " Good flight, hunter . "

DD