Small airplane crashes in Colombia

March 21, 2006

An aiplane from the Patrulla Aerea (Air Patrol) crashed in Mosquera, Nariño, a small and remote town in the south west part of Colombia. Immediately after takeoff, the plane, a Cessna, was pushed by heavy crosswind, and crashed into a house, killing a boy, his mother and a doctor on board. The pilot, Rafael Arenas, aged 42, who had been working for 10 years on the Air Patrol, survived with burns on 90% of his body, but died later in the Intensive Care unit of El Valle Universitary hospital.

The Air Patrol is a Colombian ONG, created and staffed by pilots and doctors to bring medical care to people in the most abandoned regions of the country.