China Daily (Hong Kong)

Soccer crash pilot ‘not trained properly’

Spotted the plane, but it was not certain that the plane saw the runway,” he said. He did not rule out that the plane hit a mountain. An investigat­ion was underway. Sumintaatm­adja said the aircraft, purchased from Australia, where it was first used in the

- By AGENCE FRANCEPRES­SE in La Paz, Bolivia AP

The pilot i n t he plane crash that killed 7 1 people traveling to Colombia on a Bolivian charter i ncluding footballer­s from Brazil had not flown enough hours to pilot commercial flights, a copilot’s attorney said on Saturday.

“We have been able to demonstrat­e that pilot Miguel Quiroga had not completed the training hours required” to fly commercial­ly, Omar Duran, attorney for the family of copilot Fernando Goytia — who like Quiroga was killed in the crash — told state news agency ABI.

The LaMia airlines plane slammed into the mountains outside Medellin in Colombia on Nov 29, killing most of Brazilian football team Chapecoens­e Real as they traveled to a match.

A harrowing recording has emerged of the pilot radioing Military transport plane crashes in Papua; 13 dead the control tower to report he was out of fuel. Six people survived the crash.

“Apparently in 2013, some falsified informatio­n was relayed and despite the fact authoritie­s verify that (Quiroga) did not have the flight hours required he got his license,” in Bolivia, Duran said.

Copilot Goytia was aware but did not disclose the facts to protect the airline’s reputation, the attorney added.

Investigat­ions are ongoing, but Colombia’s civil aviation safety chief has said the plane disregarde­d internatio­nal rules on fuel reserves.

Bolivia has suspended the airline’s permit and arrested its manager and his son, who is an official in the civil aviation authority.

 ?? JOHN MINCHILLO / AP ??
JOHN MINCHILLO / AP

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