Crash of Lamia plane in Medellin reveals pilot's lack of flight hours

The pilot of the Bolivian company Lamia's plane that crashed in Medellin (Colombia) at the end of November, with 77 people on board, did not have the required flight hours for commercial flights, declared the lawyer of one of the co-pilots of the aircraft.

"We have been able to show that the pilot Miguel Quiroga (deceased) did not meet the required flight hours," said Omar Durán, lawyer for the family of co-pilot Fernando Goytia, who also died in the accident, to the state news agency ABI.

In the accident, which occurred on November 29 in Colombia, 71 of the 77 people on board died, including players and officials from the Brazilian club Chapecoense, as well as journalists.

"It seems that in 2013 false information was provided, and despite verifying that (Quiroga) did not have flight hours, he was authorized as a pilot," Durán stated.

The lawyer admitted that Goytia was aware of this situation but chose not to reveal it in order to preserve the reputation of the airline.

"Goytia was an employee of the company, very meticulous, knew the planes very well, while Quiroga did not have much experience," Durán pointed out.

On the other hand, the newspaper La Razón reported that Néstor Higa, lawyer for Marco Antonio Rocha, one of the partners of Lamia, who is wanted by the Bolivian judiciary, suggested that his client is no longer in Paraguay, where the police presume he is staying, but in Colombia. Higa also said that Rocha fears returning to the country due to lack of constitutional guarantees.

In early December, the Immigration Department reported that, according to its records, Rocha had left Bolivia for Paraguay the week before the plane crash.

"The airline will initiate the necessary procedures to provide compensation of $165,000 to the families of the victims for each deceased person," Higa emphasized during a press conference in Santa Cruz (eastern Bolivia).