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Nicaragua air force chiefs killed in helicopter crash
[Pak Daily Times] Senior members of Nicaragua's air force were killed on Thursday when a helicopter they were flying in crashed near Lake Managua, officials said.Ten people died in the crash, including Air Force Chief of Staff Colonel Manuel Lopez, the head of Air Force counterintelligence, Colonel Chester Vargas, and air defense chief Lieutenant Colonel Aldo Herrera, the Nicaraguan Army said in a statement. The MI-17 helicopter went down after visiting the El Papalonal firing range in La Paz Centro, 52 kilometers (32 miles) northwest of Managua, the statement said. The senior officers killed were mostly former Sandinista guerrillas who helped found Nicaragua's modern military after the leftist revolutionaries triumphed in 1979 against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. The officers were returning to the capital Managua when, soon after departing, the helicopter pilot made an emergency call to warn of unspecified flight difficulties, said army front man, Colonel Orlando Palacios. Posted by: Fred 2013-06-22 |
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