Merida - Caracas

Merida, Venezuela (Dec 30, 2007)

We took this flight many time, as the alternative is a 12 hours drive from the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to the andean city of Mérida. The valley of Mérida is flanked by high mountains (over 15,000 ft = 5,000 m) on both sides and the airplanes have just a narrow corridor to land in the small airport right at the center of the city. It is quite impressive, especially if there are clouds and the airplane dives in while you cross your fingers and hope that the pilot knows where he is going.

The photo shows the mountains on the south of the city. The mountains on the other side are equally impressive. I shot this last December, from an ATR turbofan aircraft of the company Santa Barbara that covers the route. Two days ago one of the airplanes of this company (possibly the same we where on while I took this photo, Santa Barbara doesn’t have many airplanes) crashed on these mountains. No survivors of the 46 people onboard. This is the third air crash I am aware of that happened in venezuela in the last three months. While I was there a small airplane with several members of Mayli’s family crashed in the Caribean sea (Mayli’s cousins and aunt were rescued after several hours in the sea). In January another small plane directed to the Los Roques islands (where we have been several times) also crashed and all the people onboard (mostly italian tourists) have never been found. The cause of these two crashes is unclear, but it seems that in both cases the engines have failed forcing the airplane to go down in the sea. The crash in Mérida seems instead due to the bad weather, but an investigation is in progress.