A military plane from the Academia General del Aire crashed this Thursday in the sea off the coast of La Manga del Mar Menor in Murcia, Spain. It is the third plane crash at the same facility in the past six months. The pilot, a member of the Águila Patrol, died.
The accident occurred on Thursday afternoon, between kilometers 5 and 6 of La Manga del Mar Menor, near the coast of the city of San Javier. According to the Emergency Services, it was the people of San Javier who alerted the authorities.
The Air Force also confirmed the accident via Twitter and reported that the crashed plane was a C-101 of the Academia General del Aire. The accident occurred during a training flight, killing Eduardo Garvalena, the plane’s commander.
This is the third accident of a plane from the Academia General del Aire in the last six months. The previous two occurred in August and September. In both, the crew died.
The first accident occurred in August 26 last year. It was also a C-101 plane that fell overboard off the coast of La Manga. Commander Francisco Marín, pilot of Patrulla Águila and instructor of the Air Force, died.
The second accident occurred a few weeks later, in September 18, also in the waters of the La Manga coast. Commander Daniel Melero and Ensign Rosa María Almirón died.
The C-101 models are in the final “service life” phase and will be replaced by 24 Pilatus training aircraft, scheduled to arrive at the Academia General del Aire later this year with the aim of being used for training from September 2021.
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