Bronca in the trial for the tragedy of Fray Bentos: "They killed my mother, now we have to take care of it?" – 26/03/2019

In the afternoon of October 10, 1997, Yamila Williams was 11 years old and was a meeting of the "Chiquititas" fan club. In the afternoon of October 11, 1997, he learned two new words: "corruption" and "Pitot", in reference to the tubes that an airplane must, among other things, determine the wind speed. He learned them because the airline of the Austral airline that went from Paraná to Buenos Aires crashed near Fray Bentos, Uruguay. His father was one of the pbadengers: at age 37, Rubén Williams died with 73 other people who were in the plane.

This Tuesday, Yamila returns on learning these two words in a courtroom of Comodoro Py. They have spent 7,838 days – over 21 years – since the Austral tragedy. In her backpack, she takes out a roll of toilet paper and invites a friend: there is none in the bathrooms. Around her, more than thirty relatives of the deadly victims of Flight 2553 are wearing the same sweater. He says "Where is justice? 10/10/1997 – ?? / ?? / ??". They are waiting for them to open the door of the room where the first public and oral hearing of the trial will take place: after four postponements in the two decades since 1997, they are about to enter.

Behind a door guarded by a policeman, in a corridor where there are armchairs to sit and wait, they are 27 of 35 imputed by fraudulent ravages: some were part of Austral; some were part of the Argentinian Air Force, which was to oversee civil aviation at the time of the most fatal air tragedy in Argentina. The lawyers of the 8 accused who appeared before Comodoro Py are in the same corridor, with the documentation that allows them to act on their behalf.

"We look like the accused, they make us wait here," said María Elena Blanco, wife of the flight commander of the Austral. Close and conciliatory, another family member replied, "We wait twenty-one years, wait ten more minutes, I have a little patience." Thirty-five minutes after the appointed time, the doors of the courtroom open and the family members enter.

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On the other side of an armored glbad, the accused, their lawyers, plaintiffs' lawyers, representatives of the prosecutor's office and court clerks await the four judges who make up the Federal Criminal Court 5. A police officer Close the armored glbad door with the key. "We are not the most dangerous, we wait more than twenty years, in which head are the protected"? We are part of the complaint, we have the right to speak, "says Soledad Césere, daughter of the pilot of flight 5332." These son of a bitch murdered my mother and we must now take care of it? ", Declares Mauro Vázquez, son of the Commissioner on board who traveled from Posadas to Buenos Aires.

Yamila's mother puts on dark glbades and cries. A friend is looking for fabrics as needed. "They should leave the door open, it's symbolic"said. About 15 minutes after the relatives of the victims insisted that the door not be locked, the authorities granted the request: the police officers who guard the door remain on the spot. "Whatever happens, do not shout", these are the tips that circulate among family members, mouth to mouth.

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The four judges sitting in their high chairs, a secretary reads the requirement that the prosecution asked to be tried for the fraudulent harbadment of the defendants in the case, and some of the main arguments of this imputation, among which the qualification of an airplane that does not meet the mandatory safety requirements in force in Argentina, the falsification of documentation and the deficit training of the crew by the airline. The girl who lost her mother, father and brother in a tragedy closes her eyes as they read the names of their loved ones.

"We regret that this room has been allocated to us," said one of the judges as soon as he spoke. And he warns, "We will insist that they give us another for the next audience, so that there is no separation between those who come." The parents of the victims, behind the armored glbad and several meters away from the judges, follow their words through a screen.

The accused and the complainants listen, in absolute silence, to the complete reading of the document. "He will evaluate a sum of non-respect of the roles that triggered the tragedy," said the secretary. As he describes it, the reports determined that the immediate cause of what had happened with the Austr flight was that theft lack of necessary equipment in the aircraft, this meant that the crew had accessed erroneous information about the speed of the ship and that, on that basis, fatal decisions had been made. He lists other causes, which he describes as endemic, among which he specifies "the lack of training on the part of the company so that pilots can solve a crisis situation and the absence of emergency lighting. reporting the situation of pitot tubes ".

Reading takes half an hour. Once completed, one of the judges informs that it is transmitted to a middle room until 9th ​​of April. Then the silence breaks: "We waited 21 years this time to look them in the eyes and tell them that they are murderers.We are here children and relatives of the victims," ​​says Mauro Vázquez. He says it so loud that you can hear it from the other side of the armored glbad.

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