QCOSTARICA – In an incredible accident, a buzzard (zopilote in Spanish) crashed into the front of helicopter in flight to Puntarenas for a medical transport, nearly causing a tragedy.
The helicopter was en route to Santa Teresa de Cobano, in Puntarenas, to pick up a Canadian woman who had suffered a surfing accident.
The event occurred on Friday, in the area of Atenas, when the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in a park in Orotina, for a visual inspection, when the stench inside the aircraft had become unbearable.
What the pilot and his passenger, a paramedic, found was incredible. The zopilote had pierced the helicopter’s metal and become incrusted into the hole it made in the impact.
By luck the bird didn’t crash into the windshield, worse striking the persons inside, causing the aircraft to crash.
After the inspection, the pilot decided to fly back to the Tobías Bolaños airport in Pavas.
Due to the incident, the woman had to be taken to hospital in a small plane.
