Alas del Sur. Aeropuerto Internacional de El Calafate Comandante Armando Tola / South Wings. El Calafate´s Commander Armando Tola International Airport

“... Salimos del estacionamiento al lado de la torre, subimos y bajamos la loma, dimos la vuelta en la cabecera con un giro amplio. Di potencia de despegue y, cuando estaba en la cima de la loma, se me para el motor izquierdo. Reduzco los otros dos y trato de aplicar los frenos pero, claro, no respondían porque los habíamos casi desactivado. Al no tener respuesta y viniéndoseme encima la torre de control que estaba al final de la pista, donde había bastantes personas que habían venido a despedirnos, decido dar potencia al máximo al motor derecho y al central, ya que el izquierdo se había plantado. Comienza a responder, pero como tenía la torre cada vez más cerca, con el avión apenas en el aire comienzo un giro muy suave hacia la izquierda. Entonces, en pleno viraje, la puntera del ala izquierda pega contra un poste alto de quebracho. Toda la aeronave se estremece, gira 270 grados y cae. Se rompe el tren de aterrizaje, se desprende el motor derecho y pierde la hélice, se desprende el fuselaje de las alas, que tiene un sistema de fusible que permite este desprendimiento ante un impacto de las alas, y ahí caemos. Quedo durante un instante paralizado, miro hacia atrás y ahí estaban todos los pasajeros asustados aunque, gracias al barbudo, sin pánico y en buen estado...”.

“... We left the parking area next to the tower and went up and down the hill, and turned round at the start end of the runway with a wide turn. I applied takeoff power and, when I was at the top of the hill, the left engine stopped. I reduced the power of the other two engines and tried to apply the brakes that did not work because we had almost disabled them. Consequently, and as I was almost running into the control tower at the runway end that was full of people who had come to say good bye, I decided to apply full throttle to the right and central engines, since the left engine was shutdown. The plane began to respond, but as the tower was nearer and nearer, and the plane was hardly in the air, I made a very smooth left turn and then, in the middle of it, the left wingtip hit a high quebracho post. The whole aircraft shook, turned 270 degrees and went down. The landing gear broke, the right engine came off and the propeller was lost; the wing fuselage peeled off since it had a fuse system that was released in case the wings went through some sort of impact... and then, we went down. I was paralyzed for a moment and when I turned round I saw all the passengers, thank God, who were frightened, though not in panic, and in good condition. Fortunately, nobody was hurt...