Airline at centre of crash probe left trail of unpaid debts

The airline involved in last week’s crash in the Andes left a trail of unpaid bills that forced Bolivia’s air force to seize two planes and briefly jail one of the company’s owners, Bolivian Defence Minister Reymi Ferreira said yesterday.

The revelation added to a string of human errors and unsettling details about the Bolivian-based LaMia char- ter company’s chequered past.

A LaMia jet carrying 77 people, including a Brazilian soccer team heading to a South American championship final, slammed into a Colombian mountainside just minutes after the pilot reported running out of fuel. Investigators are centring their probe on why the shortrange jet was allowed to attempt a direct flight with barely enough fuel on board to cover the distance between Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Medellin, Colombia.

Ferreira said that in 2014, LaMia brought its three planes — all of them short-haul jets made by British Aerospace — to Bolivia’s air force for repair. He didn’t say what maintenance work was performed but accused the air- line of paying for only half the work and abandoning two of the planes.

After months of the company refusing to pay hangar fees, the Government took legal action and seized the planes, Ferreira said. He added that one of LaMia’s owners, pilot Miguel Quiroga, who died in the crash, was detained for a few days five months ago in the case.