Deadliest Roads | Colombia: Pilots of the Amazon | Free Documentary

Fishing somewhere over Colombia, high above the Amazon rainforest, near the borders with Brazil, a DC3 and an old propeller plane get caught in a violent tropical storm. Captain Rul is trying to beat the clouds. San José, come in, we are entering your airspace. There is no visibility or Respond by radio and there is no doubt, the third flight 30 37 has problems stabilizing the twin-engine plane. Rul tries to avoid the worst of the storm, but in the midst of turbulence and without radio contact he seems unable to return to the correct flight path. -The pilot Maria also seems lost in the back, the passengers are increasingly restless but the Colombians are fatalistic and above all fervent Catholics, flying is risky and it does scare me but I trust in God and the man who is flying this plane Fortunately, the old DC3 has a guardian angel, Tito, the mechanic, who checks all suspicious noises and in these old DC-3s mechanical problems are frequent and sometimes fatal on flights like these, the greatest danger is not the storm or the mechanical failure, it is the jungle at 2,000 m below the Amazon jungle a green hell an impenetrable jungle twice the size of Texas and the pilot's greatest fear below there is no room for emergency landings any breakdown will mean that the plane will crash and then its curtains several dozen planes have disappeared in the jungle swallowed by the vegetation that they are rarely found again it is one of the most dangerous air rots in the world the starting point is V vien the destination is any of the Indian villages scattered around the jungle and isolated from civilization, divine intervention or the skill of Captain Rul means that the plane has managed to get away from the storm the passengers will arrive as planned at Akari Quara a small Indian town the runway or what passes for one is a the view here there is no control tower everything is done the old way just as it was back in the 1920s and 1930s, intuition, judgment and experience.

The landing area is slippery and full of holes. It's also too short. Pilots need to be able to land practically right at the start of the runway. I slowed down as much as I could. Land. Right at the start of the runway, the friction of the wheels would help me get the plane to Hal. It slipped a little, but it wasn't too much. About 100 people live in Akari Quara. The arrival of the plane stops here only once or twice a month. As a major event without DC3, the Village would be completely isolated and getting enough food would become a problem.

If the plane didn't come here, people would starve. There are other alternatives such as the river, but it would be much more complicated. How long would it take to get there by river? Minimum three or 4 days. The town is a two-way walk to Meo. The closest town on the border with Brazil is not a great place. There are only 20 houses. There is a church and a boarding school that takes in the Indian children of the jungle. Alfredo Kago is director and has taught here for eight years. Today he is a little depressed. Over the years, his various attempts to boost the village's economy ended in failure.

Last year they bought this tractor in Meu. It took us 45 days to get him here. You see, the idea was to build a road so people could get around and transport their goods, but it's been sitting here rotting for over a year. Indians have the same lifestyle as their ancestors. Hunting, fishing and growing local produce, this is where we keep what we produce locally, there are banana yuckers as well as supplies that have arrived by plane such as rice, sugar and pasta, there is enough to last quite a while and we have even traded. a share with the Indians in exchange for their bananas, yuckers and pineapples, and we give them soap, salt, matches, candles, things like that out here it is a total barter system.

Captain R never spends more than 15 minutes on the ground, long enough to unload him. He wants to look away from the crowds of children who get in the way of takeoff, but above all he wants to avoid flying at night, to see that the children do not realize the danger they are in by playing on the landing strip as if it were their playground. of recreation. You have to be very careful when you are scattered in front of a plane so the flight back to VAV came for 2 hours the plane will fly over the jungle again the passengers do not feel comfortable if they crash their chances of survival are slim Even if they survived the wild animals and conditions, they would face another danger: the gorillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

His forces are believed to number around 10,000 people who make a living holding prisoners for ransom. Ingres Banur was held here for six years, but since the election of the city president the army has managed to

free

prisoners like this man who was kept in a hole in the ground for years after a 2-hour flight. V vieno It is located below the city, in the foothills of the Andean Cordillera d3s like the one flown by Captain Rul is the stuff of legend, there are still around 100 that fly regularly, they were first built over 70 years ago and They have survived the war and old age more or less that is where the number of flight hours is recorded. until 20450 hours during the war the flight data was not recorded, it only started when we started taking passengers and cargo when civil aviation really started how old is this plane?

I believe it was updated in 1962 according to this panel, there really is no date written anywhere and as surprising as it may seem Captain R does not know the exact age of the plane 30 it is still operational here at VAV vienu is the world capital of these old DC 3 one of the few planes capable of dealing with the flight conditions in the Amazon rainforest however accidents do occur a monument at the entrance to the airport pays tribute to the high cost in lives of aviation in these parts in 20 years more than 200

pilots

and Passengers have died, a very high price paid for the result of the rains and dirt.

Runways and in particular mechanical breakdowns, the aircraft will be permanently retired soon. Half of the planes are always on the ground undergoing repairs, like flight 1149, owned by the Sadela airline, which should have taken off this morning, but the port engine did not start. above it is not a serious problem according to José one of the two mechanics of the plane there is a small oil leak we will seal it and then we will do a quick test flight and then everything should be fine José seems confident but he was on board the same plane 18 months ago when he had to make an emergency landing in this Patty field a few kilometers from V came the DC3 is the only one that has two mechanics on board the left engine had a problem with its cylinder sputtered and then we just stopped, we had cargo and 15 passengers on board, we opened the emergency exit and dumped all the cargo, then the other engine went out and the captain decided to try to land it here at Patty Field, we landed okay, but the propellers were destroyed and the undercarriage was torn off but we survived today the same left engine is working again the fold is found after a short period it seems to be the bomb in the USA to fix the pump they take the whole engine out of the plane here in Colombia we Faster, we fix it right there and then no There seems to be a lot of concern among airline officials, whether the pilot of flight 1149 is Captain Fardo, it seems that the flight is late, yes, a little, that happens a lot, no, it's just a little maintenance routine. just a slight adjustment to the engine nothing serious but the repairs are taking longer than expected and the passengers seem clearly uneasy they say the planes are very safe but when you see it like that it's scary 5 hours later and after many doubts the flight finally leaves canceled there is always a problem there is always something wrong two weeks ago on a sadela plane there was an accident and the propeller broke people were stranded in the middle of the Amazon for a week we wanted to rent that plane it broke down what happened to it again there was a propeller The propeller did not have power to take off and they had to cancel that flight and today we have been here since 7: in the morning it is already noon and they have just announced that there is a problem and we are going to do it.

Sadela can't fly, she doesn't smile either. The engine has a serious problem. We have to dismantle it and take it to the workshop 200 meters away. It's not just the pump. It's probably something else. It may take a day to fix it, but if it turns out to be more serious, it could take up to one or two weeks the storms certainly won't help nor there is a power outage but that won't stop our two Geniuses however in Colombia a cell phone is enough to repair a plane engine because of the storm means that Raúl and María won't work either.

If we don't fly, we don't get any salary, so the more we are born in the air, the better we won't get a dime for sitting around like this. Captain R is paid much less than a regular airline pilot, but he still has big responsibilities: he has to organize flights and find passengers. Flights are booming. There is no actual flight schedule. The departure times as such on a given day. We need to get enough. cargo or passengers and when it is full we leave it is only at the last moment that we know that we are really flying or where we are going they tell us 1 hour maximum to load the plane R trust this man Pablo is a shipping agent and he is the one manages all the air transport to the Amazon jungle, there are around 120 kilos for me and there are 450 kilos of V that are going to be for Flores, that is 120 kilos plus passengers despite the unpredictable weather, the captain has decided to fly.

Torrential rain may have soaked into the fuel tanks, which could cause the engines to shut down in mid-flight. We check this by taking a sample to ensure that it is not necessary to empty the tanks to remove rainwater from the gasoline. It is clean, so there is green light after the plane is loaded. This is when the captain and shipping agent fight for the payload to make more money. Pablo tries to lie about his weight, but Raúl watches him. The plane can transport. no more than 1 and A2 tons and the captain will simply refuse to take off, the slightest problem is dangerous and the plane will simply fall from the sky, that's why we have to watch the weight of the cargo because if something breaks down, then we will have time enough to continue flying and to be able to send any superfluous cargo so that we can complete the flight.

Vegetables, beds, dogs, chickens. The televisions in Columbia, the DC-3s, are more like country buses. Anything is transported, even cocaine, and the police control it. surely there is no one on board with fuel at minimum every extra kilo counts too much fuel and the plane will be too heavy to take off not enough and it could mean an accident in the jungle 140 is enough no no no no no no good just about that There is enough to get there, judging the exact amount of fuel is a constant concern for the captain, how much more do we need?

Captain, uh, we put 20 here and 20 in the back, that's 150 + 20, that is, 170 in front, it's a small town in the middle of the Colombian jungle, the landing strip, the main road until recently, however, Mira Flores was known for being a drug capital under the control of cocaine traffickers and please don't get off the plane, yes, and if you get off, make sure you don't film the captain doesn't want us to film because these days Mira Flores is under the control of the army, who are sensitive to security, the military everywhere once here there used to be 12 13 maybe 14 flights every day now there are only two flights a week and occasionally the occasional small plane.

One of the reasons there are so few flights is that over the last 10 years its inhabitants have been slowly abandoning The Village. We filmed the Flores mirror when cocaine ruled Supreme, it had become El Dorado. and a golden era for the DC3, a plane landed every 50 minutes loaded with supplies and with Fortune Hunters, be careful with the runway in case there are horses or cars, people should be careful because the approach is delicate, the runway is not clear, I'm going to have to step on the accelerator again 4,000 people lived here in this town that had emerged from nowhere there was a huge amount of drug money floating around people from all over Colombia flocked to make their fortune it was the Wild West of Colombia turning mud streets into brothels and other dieses here in mirror Flores there is a little violence a little drug trafficking there is a gorilla war there is police murder and prostitution and there are huge fields of cocoa plants around the city it is the local specialty and this is an illicit cocaine laboratory still There are hundreds more like this scattered throughout the jungle.

Farmers use them to produce cocaine base known as paste, which they then sell to drug traffickers. The substance is then sent by boat or plane to more sophisticated laboratories to be refined and then smuggled to Europe or the United States. United States Hello Louis, these leaves have already been shredded. No, let's do that. Then we collect the leaves and then mix them with the lime and then they marinate in this container for about 40 minutes. This is water. mixed with kerosene and we added about 20 Cen of acid thenwe add ammonia to separate the COA and bleach it now otherwise you could filter it through this cloth what's left is the base what we call the paste here in mirror Flores we get about 15 a gram this is about 150 g so that's worth it uh 300.

We have about a kilo per Hector, which generates about €2,000, but my expenses are about €600. I don't make much profit, it's the people who send it abroad who make a lot. We didn't really earn much money with it, just enough to live on and maybe some Christmas gifts that they sent to the military and a pitus war broke out, it's a bit like Vietnam here sometimes in the mirror of Flores the Lords of cocaine managed all in open defiance of the authority of the government and the state also wanted to weaken the Fack that had made cocaine its main source of income. the center of the city, right among the civilians, the war ended with the destruction of the secret laboratories, tons of cocaine disappeared, the traffickers were killed or arrested and the F gorillas were returned to the jungle, few DC-3s enter anymore or they leave, especially when they lost the landing strip like this one in the VAV Vieno repair hangar.

It took the mechanics only one night to repair the engine of Sadela Flight 1149. There is still the complicated job of fixing it back to the wing and making sure that it runs smoothly You have to wonder about an engine that is in this state. It works, although thank God, yes, it gave me a huge headache. Although Captain Falo will take the plane for a test flight. He has been flying DC-3s for seven years and knows this aircraft well. the one that crashed at Patty's field a year and a half earlier meticulously checks everything before takeoff the mechanic keeps an eye on the engine so far very good good on board everything seems fine and the crew is happy that everyone has focused on the port engine when Suddenly it is the starboard engine that stops and then restarts inside the plane there is a slight panic but the DC3 can fly perfectly even with a single engine the captain must land quickly however on this runway impromptu landing what's up John what's going on no I'm just checking the fuel pressure, okay, it's a little low, but we can fix it and the DC3 will soon be in the air again despite the imminent risk of another breakdown, the comforting hum of The engines soon put everyone to sleep, even the pilot in Villa Viso. the storm is finally over Captain Raúl and his crew are carefully preparing their next flight and the captain is restless, you will have to land on one of the most dangerous landing strips in Colombia and he has never been there before, everything has to be arranged for the approach . accelerate the precise place where the wheels must land uh, what happens if you make a mistake?

Oh, it's simple, we will crash or we will go off the track that is right next to a ravine, is it big? The ravine at the end of the track is deep. 80 M and the icing on the cake is that on this flight it will carry 1,800 L of highly combustible fuel. The fuel guy is not happy with us filming for fear that a spark from our equipment could set everything on fire. Well, go ahead, film. but it's dangerous, in this hot weather, anything could start a fire and there would be no way to put it out.

They'd roast us all along with a plane. Ras, it's always stressful, especially at The Landings, when I see us. We are running out of air runway and the brakes are full and we start to slide left and right, but we keep going and there is nothing we can do about it as a precaution Tito, the on-board mechanic, has removed the door rear, a short circuit, a spark. Violent blow and everything could explode. We leave the door open so that the vapors dissipate. We carry fuel. That's why it's crucial that the plane be well ventilated in the rear and front to prevent gasoline buildup in any area after an accident.

In flight you can see the runway, fortunately visibility is excellent in Colombia, they are not the only

pilots

who risk their lives. Aguazul is a 3 hour drive from Villa Vieno, this is Theos or the Great Plains region of Colombia with huge herds of cattle and cowboy rice. and cereals are also grown here, the area is the Bread Basket of the country shortly after 5: in the morning, José Gutiérrez, a 46-year-old pilot, is about to take off. We have to check the brakes now, make sure not a single screw is missing. that there are no cracks in any of the pipes it's a matter of life or death so we sure play with death every day it's a special type of pilot well known locally sometimes he sees a car he recognizes below and like an Ace fighter it partially flies low to make the vehicle sound, a very dangerous maneuver just to impress his friends in the car.

I think I have the most dangerous job flying well, even more than in a DC3, yes, I mean, in the DC3 takeoffs are dangerous due to the weight of the load and the power of the engines, but once the pilot is above 15,000 M, if there is a problem, you have time to dump the load; However, if the engine stops, we have only 10 seconds to find a place to land and there is certainly no time for Jet and whatever. José is a crop duster. His job is to spray fertilizers or pesticides on the fields. His chest is full of its highly toxic chemicals each farmer prepares his own mixture there are no controls the goal is simply to be effective today your task is to spray PES pdes on these fields and before that you need to get your bearings so I go from here to uh what is that?

So that is a hill and that is where we will plant today and what is on this other side rice to do it. It's worth it while José's tank is full to the brim with pesticides there is so much that the plane has difficulty taking off from the ground the pilot has to drive between these two white flags to spray the correct fields and prevent the wind from carrying the pesticides to another part José flies as low as possible on average José makes about a dozen flights a day 12 takeoffs and landings we have to stay alert all the time danger can come from anywhere we are flying just one meter above the ground so We have no time to react or hardly any.

Anyway we have to focus on the flags and the farmers and at the same time be attentive to the instruments. I have to be aware of everything that happens inside and outside the plane. You have to make sure there are no obstructions on the field. You know someone walking across the flight path or a cow or trees, of course, who could be in the field to do all that. You need to know what you're doing every time you stop to refuel. It's a race against time like a Formula 1 pit stop. Every minute counts. You can't stop for more than 2 minutes.

Time is of the essence. Every minute costs me 20,000 pesos right now. I'm going at those prices. He's not around, but he's not. there is routine in the sky just danger everywhere especially when there are power lines crossing the fields that is really scary and often he has little choice but to fly under them and at dawn you can barely see the power lines you must be a little crazy to do this job, right? a bit complete the list of crop duster pilots who have died is long José has been in close to 13 serious accidents in two breakdowns in flight three accidents on takeoff and the rest while he was working once when he was landing a wheel broke and the plane crashed It overturned I wasn't even wearing my seatbelt when I was rolling over the fuselage it cracked and in order to get out of the hole I had hit my head on the big fuse that time they also dragged you out I was unconscious for about 10 minutes it was like being drunk, they dragged me and someone held my head but I couldn't move it that accident the worst thing about José was on this same plane 18 years ago he was a cocky young man then and still single. things have changed now he has a family he and his wife Julia are the proud parents of an 8 year old daughter and a newborn he is only 20 days old I would like to be around until at least his hand is as big as mine It will pass a while, though at least 20 years, Julia's happiness would be complete if her husband wasn't a pilot when we were dating and then we started living together, then I realized what I was dealing with before and that I hadn't.

I always worry about that. One day I will get a call to tell me that the plane crashed and something happened to it. You've never asked him to change jobs, yes, all the time, but he still flies for a living. He needs to find something else to do. Not being a pilot, I always ask him to stop flying, raising children is much more difficult than flying airplanes, airplanes do not control Pilots, while the children here do, the party is a tradition every Sunday José and his family enjoy a barbecue with his friends, the music They are the Kanto songs that pay tribute to the cowboys of this region of Colombia the Clos give us everything they give me work in agriculture and a way for others to earn a living also the music relaxes me the words are so wonderful they're about us and it makes me feel one with the culture here every time I start playing.

I'm always humming one of these songs. I usually have one of the tunes in my head when I fly the Clos, there will always be Plenty of work for José and his aerial antics will continue to be a feature for the foreseeable future. The DC3 is 2 will likely continue flying for some time.