The Fiscalía Adjunta de Nicoya (Deputy Prosecutor’s Office of Nicoya) confirmed that it has completed the investigation into the air crash that took the lives of 12 people on December 31, 2017, in an area near the runway located in Corozalito de Nandayure, Guanacaste.
The Fiscalía, in an email, confirmed that it is now working on the final report that will lead to a decision where there will be criminal files charged or the investigation is closed.
The crash took the lives of ten American tourists and the two Costa Rican pilots when the Nature Air plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Punta Islita runway.
That day, the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan crashed very close to the runway from where it took off, the final destination was the San Jose airport.
The had one month of being in the country and had passed all the operational controls necessary to fly. The Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC) – Civil Aviation – said it had not received reports of any previous problems.
Following the crash, the DGAC suspended the operations of Nature Air between January 12 and February 1 because they failed to comply with a series of logistical and operational requirements. In May the DGAC, once again, suspended the operation of the company, forcing Nature Air, an airline dedicated to domestic service, temporarily out of business.
The airline was never able to recover.
The fallen in the crash were: Bruce Michael Steinberg, Matthew Benjamin Steinberg, William Aaron Steinberg, Zachary Justin Steinberg, Irene Steinberg, Ari Moses Weiss, Hannah Mae Weiss, Leslie Levin Weiss, Mitchell Weiss, Amanda Rae Geissler, Juan Manuel Retana Chinchilla ( pilot), Emma Ramos Calderón (co-pilot).
In principle, authorities pointed to 3 hypotheses for the crash: the influence of strong winds, a human failure or a mechanical issue.
