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Date Published: 06/01/2023

ARCHIVED - Private plane crash in San Javier leaves two pilots dead

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Twenty soldiers have died in plane crashes in the Region of Murcia in the last 40 years

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Private plane crash in San Javier leaves two pilots dead

Two experienced pilots have lost their lives after the light aircraft they were flying over the Murcia municipality of San Javier crashed on the afternoon of Thursday January 5.

Air Force Second Lieutenant Adolfo Baños and civilian flight instructor Hugo López decided to take the Tecnam Sierra private plane up for a recreational fly since they were both free on the eve of Three Kings Day. But just moments after the pair took off from Los Garranchos aerodrome, the craft plummeted from the sky, 9 kilometres from San Javier.

Both pilots have belonged to the Mar Menor flying club for years and their colleagues are deeply shocked by the tragic accident, which occurred during perfect flying conditions.

"No one is free from risk, no matter how experienced you are," a military pilot said yesterday on hearing the news.

Hugo López, 47, was a vastly experienced instructor who had taken up countless fledgling pilots from that very runway. Second Lieutenant Baños, 54, was a civilian pilot and an expert in mechanics. At the time of his death he was stationed at the NATO airbase in Geilenkirchen-Teveren in Germany but frequently returned to San Javier, where he had lived for many years and where, according to his friends, he wanted to return in the future.

The plane crash at the Los Garranchos aerodrome is the latest in a long list of similar accidents that have occurred in the Region of Murcia in the last 40 years. In total, about 20 soldiers have died since 1983 in air accidents that occurred on the Murcian coast.

In Spain as a whole, more than 10 Spanish soldiers have been killed in flying accidents since 1983. The most serious took place on February 28 1984, when 18 officials died when a US Air Force C-130 Hercules plane crashed in the municipality of Borja in Zaragoza.

In other news: Public appeal launched to find missing Murcia man

Image: 112 Murcia

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