Quote:

 

23 September 2009

Spanish police have arrested an Argentinian military pilot accused of taking part in "death flights" in which hundreds of opponents of his country's military junta were thrown from planes into the sea.

Juan Alberto Poch, 57, was arrested on Monday at the controls of a Dutch holiday jet he was about to fly from Valencia to Amsterdam.

Poch is wanted by the courts in Argentina to answer allegations that he flew navy aircraft on the death flights between 1976 and 1983.

Transavia, a low-cost airline owned by KLM and Air France, has confirmed it employed the pilot, who also has Dutch nationality.

Spanish police said they arrested Poch during a 40-minute turnaround for the plane he was flying for Transavia. The company had been warned the arrest was pending and another pilot was on hand to fly the plane.

"He [Poch] was a regular pilot on the flights from Schipol airport [in Amsterdam] to Valencia," Spanish police said. "The officers who arrested him at Valencia's Manises airport made sure there were minimal problems for the passengers, with another pilot already arranged in advance."

Prisoners on the death flights in Argentina were told they were being moved from one jail to another and then drugged to make them drowsy before they got on the planes.

Adolfo Scilingo, an Argentinian navy captain who took part in the death flights, has stated that prisoners were given a second drug to knock them out completely and then stripped.

The planes were flown out to the Atlantic Ocean where the doors were opened. "When the commander of the aircraft gave the order, those of us in the back threw them out through the door," Scilingo said several years ago.

Up to 1,000 prisoners who passed through the infamous detention centre at the naval mechanical school are thought to have been murdered this way. It is almost certain that the pilots knew what was happening.

Poch's name features in four separate investigations launched by Argentinian courts, according to Spanish police. He will face an extradition tribunal to decide whether he should be sent to Argentina.

A report by the Argentinian government says more than 11,000 people died or disappeared during the "dirty war", a crackdown on opponents of the military junta. Human rights groups say the real number is nearer to 30,000.

The Guardian

DoYouEverWonder

 

If the Argentinians could 'disappear' 11,000+ people, I suppose a couple of hundred people wouldn't be too difficult a task for the US.