Raul, the farmer who witnessed the crash

RIO NEGRO, May 20, 2011.- Raúl Goicoechea is a rancher of 44 years old, who on Wednesday about 9 pm was with his pick-up truck in Prahuaniyeu, the place in which a plane crash and took the lives of 22 people.

Raul said he suddenly saw an amorphous light in the sky that caught his attention. “It appeared for a second time, and falls to the floor right there,” he noted. He understood that it was a plane.

“It was light, fire and explosion. And then five blasts. The plane was on fire when it hits the floor. I stopped the pick-up truck and got on the box to see better because the fire was on a low section, and I could not believe it. But there was nothing more than the plane,” Raul said.

He added: “I was alone, without a flashlight, nothing. I stood there listening for a while and I felt just five more explosions.”

Raul decided to go for help to Los Menucos town, which is 25 kilometers from the scene.

“I indicate them how to go. The plane went down is the field of Pedro Ñonquepán. The plane passed over his house, I was told by the boys that live there. And it fall to 800 meters from the house,” he said.

“I cross the field in a truck that Pedro gave me and came quickly to the place. There was a fire so it was not difficult to reach it. When I stopped the vehicle we were almost on body parts. Legs, fingers, hands, it’s hard to explain everything …” said the man.

Others who arrived at the place described the same scene, bodies mutilated in a radius of 200 meters, sections of wreckage that fell to small pieces, clothing, diapers and items likely belonged to the baggage of passengers, fire and desolation.