(Full article in Spanish)

Translation:

Three passengers and two crew were killed when their Cessna 310 flying from San Fernado (north of Greater Buenos Aires) to the island of Martin Garcia plunged and crashed in the river delta below. The three passengers, Roberto Cadiboni, Virginia Van Kooten & Pablo Levikas were teachers that were on a routine flight to the island were they gave lessons in the local school. Ironically however, this time they were flying there to receive their paychecks. The two crew were Horacio Barragan (the pilot), and Cecilia Roth, the 21 year old daughter of the OWNER of the jet and the airline service, Columbus Airways.



Weather conditions were normal, somewhat cloudy with winds between 20 & 30 kilometers, nothing unusual. Weather was chilly, but typical winter in Argentina. Ten minutes after the 7:45 akeoff, the Columbus Airways craft plunged into the Arroyito Pajarito (Bird's creek), six kilometers from the port of Tigre. The flight to the Martin Garcia island takes 20 to 30 minutes, so after over one hour that the control tower had no communication with the aircraft, they declared an emergency, & about 10 minutes later the remains of the Cessna 310 were found in a swampy area in the river delta, by coast guard ships. The bodies were quickly recovered, as winds were picking up as the morning progressed, in fact the plane's remains were sinking under the swampy marsh & under the water that was piling up due to the 'sudestada' (cold, southeast wind from the ocean) that was beginning to hamper rescue efforts.

Ironically about one hour after the accident, at 9:30, the national weather office issued an ALERT of the likelyhood of high winds from the southeast over the River Plate AND the Parana Delta, the same area were the plane crashed. However, officials investigating so far are ruling out that weather had anything to do with the crash.