Originally Posted by
MrSnuggles
This really is a hornet's nest full of, let's say, surprises.
A dodgy operator with suspicious connections and cowboy attitude to everything that is survival has obliterated a whole football team. Why is the Bolivian gouvernment that thick? Damn it, I heard (and this is no joke) that they cancelled the postal services there because the prez thinks it is too expensive.
That ECOBOL (post office) issue is an ongoing saga. Unfortunately the maladministration and lack of effective governance that seems to have contributed to this LaMia accident is typically Bolivian (and nothing new; in 1878 they started a sea war with Chile despite having no navy, losing their entire coastal region and access to the sea ever after).
It will be interesting to see what fallout if any is suffered by BoA and Amaszonas, Bolivia's two operators of scheduled international passenger services.
With regard to Bolivian airlines operating at the limit of their fuel, in the mid 2000s a friend of mine was travelling on a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano 767 non-stop service from Madrid to Santa Cruz. At the time the airline was in financial crisis and it eventually ceased operations for good in 2008. The plane made a landing at a Brazilian air force base on Brazil's northern Atlantic coast, and couldn't leave until the passengers had a whip-round to pay for more fuel to get them to VVI.