Global Courant 2023-05-26 22:31:49
These are the dialogues that the commander of the Boeing 757-256 had with the control tower.
The audios kept by the pilot of the presidential plane, who this Thursday made a risky maneuver on his arrival in Argentina, with the control tower, were known.
In several passages, the commander of the Boeing 757-256, Leonardo Barone, which was purchased for a value close to 25 million dollars, ignores the instructions of the controllers.
In one of the passages, the pilot asks for authorization to go below 3,000 feet, to which the tower tells him to wait a few minutes for the airspace over the San Fernando Airport to be released to authorize the request.
From that moment on, a series of confusing dialogues begins in which responses take time and communication is unclear.
“Do not descend from 3,000 feet to avoid penetrating the San Fernando landing,” says the woman from the control tower, to which the pilot responds: “Free descent for the ARG-01? (as the plane is known)” . But from the control they don’t allow it: “Negative, keep at 3,000 feet.”
I am not satisfied with this refusal, insistence or failure in communication continues: “Hold at 3,000. Give me two minutes to release SANFER’s ATZ and I’ll give you free descent.”
And the pilot insists: “Ah, I understood that it was free descent. We are maintaining it… 2300 feet.”
“I never gave him free descent,” the controller tells him. “Sorry. We are at 3,000 feet. Released 3,000 feet”, completes the pilot.
The arrival of the Boeing was controversial: minutes after landing, a risky maneuver was recorded on video meters from the Jorge Newbery airport runway.
It was his baptism flight as a new presidential aircraft, after a long search. He left Miami at 8:29 in the morning (Argentina time). At 5:25 p.m., he touched down on the runway at the airport. But before there was controversy.
Twelve minutes before the effective landing, it landed a few meters from the runway, although – due to its profile – it did so without intending to touch the ground. He got to fly 45 meters from the ground. Suddenly, Leonardo Barone, the pilot, turned the light blue and white plane on its side, turned towards the Río de la Plata and resumed flight. Barone is Secretary General of Logistics of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, which is in charge of the Presidency’s fleet of aircraft.
It was a “low pass”, in aeronautical terms. The specialists described it as “negligence” and linked it to acrobatic flights.
In addition, at 5:05 p.m. he passed through the Plaza de Mayo. It was just above the Casa Rosada, minutes after the end of the act headed by Cristina Kirchner.
Hours later, Barone and Juan Pablo Pinto signed a statement from the Presidential Air Group that was broadcast by La Nación. He himself maintains that permission was requested from the control tower at Aeroparque to carry out “the overflight along the runway axis as a reception of the aircraft incorporated into the air fleet.”
“Such passage was authorized by control, this being use and custom every time an aircraft joins or when a commander leaves. These passages are authorized by taking place along the runway axis without overflying obstacles”, concludes the brief explanation.
“Can the plane do this? Yes. Is it necessary? If there is nothing coordinated and nobody asked you to do it, it is quite illogical. It is a new plane, the pilots come recently qualified on the plane. It would be necessary to see what experience each one has,” said pilot and consultant Carlos Rinzelli, in dialogue with TN.
