Quote:
As one who has spent half their professional life working in South America, speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese and had dealings with the civil aviation authorities in most of those countries, I will say only this:
1) Not all of the accidents which take place are investigated or reported officially. Example - the 'meat run' from Trinidad (Bolivia) to La Paz when there were many accidents, one of which I saw myself, but it was never formally reported.
2) Why were DC-3s allowed to take off from Villavicencio (Colombia) with their doors removed so that they could carry petrol drums? This happened in plain sight during the day - I saw it with my own eyes - and not just once.
I fully understand that breaches of the rules take place in other parts of the world too, but I speak only of what I know.
So lack of regulation then?
There is a great deal of naivete displayed in many postings in this thread.
Anybody who has lived or worked in South America will know that the culture is very different regarding rules and authority. In Europe, USA, etc. there is a (broad) adherence to rules and regulations, not so in much of the rest of the world.
From the facts known so far none of them are that surprising to anybody with experience of working in South America.