Austral tragedy in Fray Bentos: 559 days after the start of the trial, the first witnesses testify

06/10/2020 - 6:01

• Clarín.com

• Society

On the night of Friday, October 11, 1997, Austral Lineas Aereas flight 2533 that was going from Posadas de Buenos Aires crashed in Fray Bentos.

: it is until today the greatest tragedy of Argentine commercial aviation.

It took more than

for the case to go to trial on March 26 of last year.

And had to

spend

until they

before the Tribunal Oral Federal 5.

That will happen this Tuesday, starting at 10 in the morning, when there are only 4 days left until the

of the tragedy

is fulfilled

.

Thus, the trial that seeks to determine the responsibilities of former directors of the airline and former officials of the Air Force will be formally resumed.

During the first stage of the trial, the testimony of the experts presented by the parties was heard.

The testimony of the first witnesses was scheduled for March 17, but the judicial fair imposed by the coronavirus pandemic forced them to be postponed.

Now it will be realized

.

Relatives of the victims of the Austral tragedy, in a group photo taken in March 2019, days before the start of the oral trial.

This Tuesday, 559 days later, the first witnesses will testify.

Photo: Martín Bonetto

This Tuesday will be heard from Rubén Mario Montenegro, former head of the Argentine Air Force, and Felix Pibernat, instructor of the Instructions Management of the Austral company, who trained the deceased pilots.

The lawyer Silvina Rumachella - who is the sister of Viviana, the stewardess of the tragic flight - says that initially it was expected that

testify at the trial

, but the court limited that list to 20, although with the possibility of adding more testimonies in the case if necessary.

"All those who were part of the investigation in Uruguay were left out, which for us as a complaint are fundamental," he explains.

Some of the objects that the relatives of the victims of the Austral tragedy recovered from the place where the plane fell.

Photo: Martín Bonetto

The experts made by the Uruguayan organizations determined that

that were supposed to alert about the operation of the speedometers

.

They claim that what happened was that the pitot tube -which marks the speed inside the pressurized cabin-

and the pilot believed that the speed was lower than what it was actually going, so he extended the flaps but the air pressure he ripped it off and the ship lost control until it crashed.

Last year, during the first stage of the trial, the experts who testified

, which in practice ended up bringing responsibility to the pilots, explains Rumachella.

That is why he considers it important that the members of the Investigating Commission of Air Accidents (Ciada) of Uruguay testify at the trial.

Image of the tests carried out in the place where Austral's plane crashed.

AP Photo

The cause was investigated throughout these almost 21 years by three judges.

In 2013 it was settled in the court of Sebastián Ramos, who finally took it to oral proceedings.

Regarding the testimonies that will be known this Monday, the lawyer points out that Felix Pibernat declared in previous instances that "

stalls. He said they were only trained in low speed, which is what he ends up trying to do. The copilot".

And he links this with the fact that in the face of the icing situation and the lack of an alarm, "the pilots had misinformation,

."

During the hearings held last year, the last audio of the pilots was known.

The recording - taken in the booth - lasts 18 minutes and has a loud noise that makes it difficult to understand what they say.

But it is possible to distinguish the fatal moment, when the plane lost control and plummeted to the ground, tumbling in the air.

It occurs at minute 17 of the audio, when Commander Jorge Cécere yells at the copilot Horacio Núñez:

.

At that time the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft, with the Argentine registration LV-WEG, was descending into a tailspin, increasing its speed and without control.

It was October 1997. Now, almost 23 years later, a new stage of the trial begins that must determine who was responsible for the tragedy that ended with 74 lives.

DD