American Expatriate Costa Rica

OIJ raids Civil Aviation and Nature Air

As part of the proceedings of the investigation on the plane crash that occurred on December 31st in Nandayure de Guanacaste, the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) searched the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and two dependencies of the company Nature Air, at the Juan Santamaría International Airport and at the Tobías Bolaños International Airport.

The proceedings, which began around 8:00 a.m. on Monday with 30 agents, were confirmed by Enio Cubillo, director of the DGAC; and by Walter Espinoza, director of the OIJ. They must review all the documentation related to the damaged aircraft: flight logs, maintenance logs, digital files, documentation and files of the two pilots, documents of the work schedules of the pilots and the availability to work the day of the events, as well as the maintenance plan of the aircraft.

Cubillo explained that this type of procedure is normal when investigating these events. For now, the 12 autopsies of the victims (10 of which were American citizens) have yet to be completed.

Those killed in the accident were: Bruce Michael Steinberg, Matthew Benjamin Steinberg, William Aaron Steinberg, Zachary Justin Steinberg, Irene Steinberg, Ari Moses Weiss, Hannah Mae Weiss, Leslie Levin Weiss, Mitchell Weiss, Amanda Rae Geissler, Juan Manuel Retana Chinchilla (pilot), Emma Ramos Calderón (co-pilot).

At the moment, the authorities handle 3 hypotheses: the influence of strong winds, a mechanical failure or a human error.

crhoy.com