Erwin Tumiri: Double “miracle”: a survivor of the air tragedy of Chapecoense comes out unscathed from an accident with 21 dead | International

“I don’t feel immortal. I’m afraid of everything that has happened, ”says Erwin Tumiri. This young Bolivian is a survivor. On November 28, 2016, I was traveling as a crew technician on the LaMia airline flight that crashed out of fuel near the airport in Medellín, Colombia with the Brazilian football team Chapecoense in edge. 71 people died and Tumiri was among the six who were rescued. On Tuesday, a bus crashed at dawn on the highway that connects the city of Cochabamba to Chimoré. 21 people died in the accident. Erwin Tumiri was in the way and, again, only had a few scratches.

“The bus was going at high speed, so I sensed something was going to happen,” he says. When the vehicle pulled off the road and started to fall and hit the mountain, he knew he had to hold on as hard as he could. Tumiri didn’t think about his previous accident, he didn’t have time for it. “I just hung onto the seats,” he says. When the bus stopped turning, he managed to get out in a way he can’t quite remember. “Other people did not come out; I do, ”he explains as if to apologize. Four years ago, he also got out of the crashed plane in Colombia. He even helped a flight attendant. Both were the only two crew members alive.

Her story about the LaMia crash was so often covered by the media that Tumiri, months after it happened, declined to grant further interviews. His mother chased away any journalist who wanted to interview him. Today Erwin is back in the headlines. Did the two accidents look the same at all? Tumiri doesn’t hesitate: “No, they didn’t look alike,” he said.

Tumiri, now employed as a Bolivian government official, says God saved him. After LaMia’s accident, she gave her testimony in many churches. “Papa God exists, he is there. I ask why, Lord, you blessed me, if I’m lazy to even read literature and stuff. Sometimes when I’m at home I start to think and question things. This moment is not easy to transport. But, thanks to the many friends I had and those who were with me at the time, I was able. For me it was a great blessing ”, he declared to his co-religionists in one of these“ revivals ”, according to the account of journalist Sergio de la Zerda in The duty.

“My mother was devastated [en el primer accidente]Now she’s calmer, ”he said relieved. He is recovering in Cochabamba surrounded by his sisters and nieces, who are the ones who make connections with journalists calling from various parts of the world. He will soon resume his post at the Civil Aeronautics Directorate and, like the other officials, will have to travel again by air and land. Tumiri still loves to fly. If he had been born into a wealthy family, he would undoubtedly be a pilot.

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