This was the Conversation Between the Pilots of the LAPA Tragedy

Almost 20 years ago , on August 31, 1999, there was the accident of LAPA , the worst aeronautical tragedy in Argentina. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the incident, in which 67 people died, social networks recalled the audio of the final dialogue of the pilots who were in the cockpit.

That day the black box of voices (Cockpit Voice Recorder) of flight 3142 of the Boeing 737 bound for Córdoba recorded the last half hour of conversation between the pilot Gustavo Weigel, 45, and his second aboard, Luis Etcheverry, 35 Both died in the tragedy.

It was the recording of that talk that allowed the experts of the accident to conclude that there were errors in the cabin check, among them that the alarm of the flaps (the ailerons) that sounded was ignored, that the configuration status was not controlled of the system of the same and that there were several interruptions in that process.

In fact, in the audio it can be seen how Weigel and Etcheverry talk about issues that are not related to the flight and even that the pilot sometimes ignores his cockpit companion during the review of the checklist in the moments before the start of the takeoff.

The alarm of the flaps sounded for 52 seconds but there were no express signs of concern beyond the comment of the pilot who was immortalized in the recordings: ” I do not know what is happening, old man, but everything is fine.” What happened next made that statement totally wrong.

“I don’t know what’s up, man, but it’s all good, said the pilot about the alarm.”

Just a few seconds after those sayings, the plane, still on the ground, caught fire and got out of control until the Aeroparque fence was started, crossing Costanera Avenue, dragging a car that was driving through it and starting to disintegrate through the flames in the sand of the golf course.

The Federal Oral Court 4 – by majority – only sentenced two hierarchical employees of the company to three years in prison on hold for guilty havoc, while absolving top managers in the midst of pain, anger, outrage and severe complaints of survivors and relatives of the victims.

In fact, he announced his decision in two sections, as he had to stop reading the ruling because of the chaos that had been generated in the courtroom of Comodoro Py.

 

 

Source: Perfil