Manuel Rey Cordeiro, the pilot who died, no Sunday, in the crash of the Warbird Yak52s during the Beja Air Show air festival, he reported an engine failure on his aircraft. “Coco”, as it was known, trying to climb to gain altitude, when his tail hit the propeller of another plane on the same patrol, which ended up landing and the pilot surviving with minor injuries.
The maneuver of the experienced Vueling driver, known as “Coco”, of 62 year old, The aim was for the plane to gain altitude and then see if it could glide the aircraft and land safely or if it could jump out of the plane., could open the parachute and the Warbird Yak52s would land in an area outside the Air Base 11 (BA11), where more than 100 thousand people attended the festival.
In the descending phase of the aircraft crash, Manuel Rey jumped from the device, which does not have automatic injection of the flight seats, with the body of the ill-fated pilot lying on top of the barbed wire fence of the military unit, being completely dismembered.
The aircraft crashed outside the military unit and the parachute only opened after the violent impact. Parts of “Coco’s” body would still be charred by the flames caused by the explosion of the device..
The accident occurred at around 4:05 pm on Sunday when two aircraft from the Yakstars aerobatic patrol collided in mid-flight., and beyond death Manuel Rey, the pilot of the aircraft that suffered the impact, the Portuguese Tiago Correia, of 37 year old, resident in Ramada, in the municipality of Odivelas, managed to land the plane on the connecting takeaway between the Civil Terminal parking apron and the BA11 runways. When you entered a forest area, the left wheel of the landing gear broke, the plane slowed down and was turned “belly up”, the pilot having left by his own means, being immediately assisted on site by the base's relief and health services.
The accident caused great disorientation among the remaining four patrol pilots., one of the aircraft having landed at Évora Aerodrome, where it is still located and of the three that managed to land on the BA11 runways, one of the pilots suffered a panic attack, which led him to abandon the aircraft, leaving his helmet on the seat, being collected by Air Force soldiers.
Civil and military investigation in the field
The Office of Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) They arrived at BA11 on Sunday and their first objective was to inspect the plane where Manuel Rey Cordeiro died., so that his body was removed to the Médici Legal Office of Beja, in order to be autopsied, which occurred around 8:30 p.m..
In conjunction with the Air Force, GPIAAF inspectors first inspected the plane that crashed inside BA11 and then the remains of the aircraft in which the Spanish pilot, native of Oroso, in the Spanish province of Galicia, lost his life.
Young Portuguese woman received a “Coco” cap and mourns her death
After Friday's training as part of the Beja Air Show, pilots of the Águila aerobatic patrols, Spanish Air Force and Yakstars, mixed Portuguese-Spanish, they met and socialized in a cafe close to the hotel where they were staying. A military pilot offered Manuel Rey an Águila patrol cap, but as fate would have it, “Coco” ended up offering it to Joana (fictitious name) a young waitress, of 22 year old, who served the pilots.
No Sunday, after the accident that caused the death of the Spanish civilian pilot, the soldier sent a message to Joana, with a photo of “Coco” saying: “our friend died in the plane crash in Beja”. Joana was inconsolable and told her parents about the pilot's misfortune.. He was the first person to learn of Manuel Rey's death. Now he promises to keep the cap next to his friend's photo, of the many published by the social media.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
