COLOMBIA � Twenty-three colombian soldiers died february 26, 2003, when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down. A Colombian Army press release details their names, hometowns and ages but it does not tell what happened that day...
It was a day time flight. It was a dangerous but routine mission to ferry soldiers from one base to another. Black Hawks are the safest means of getting around Colombia. Vastly more soldiers are killed by roadside bombs than anything else in Colombia. Getting them up in the air is the easiest way to avoid them.
I remember we were doing an ordinary transit mission, a routine mission carrying passengers across Colombia-, said someone. -It`s nothing that you really think about. It`s more of an instinct. We are there to protect our friends and brothers. We will do anything it takes. If it means putting ourselves in the line of fire to attack them that`s part of what it means to be a soldier-, he said.
When we started making our runs on the truck I really wasn`t thinking. It was more just acting out, engaging the truck, following up targets. When the weapon was out of ammo, the actions of reloading, getting the guns back out the window when it was your turn to fire again engage the enemy. There really wasn`t much time to think-, he said. Then adrenaline took over.
Captain PABLO OSORIO loved flying, especially Black Hawk helicopters. He once described them as "awesome" to fly. "They're probably a bit harder to learn to fly than aeroplanes � hovering is the trickiest bit," he said in a 2000 interview.
Captain Osorio, 30, had been flying Black Hawks since 1998. But on Wednesday 26 february 2003, he lost his life doing what he loved when his helicopter crashed in Colombia. He was married. Captain Osorio up in Villavicencio a small town in Colombia, where he had dreamed of flying as a child. He joined the army in 1990 and was stationed in Bogota. He worked hard to upgrade his qualifications to meet the army's pilot criteria.
"At school I didn't get the marks in maths that I needed, so I did 10 years in the infantry and did study night to get the marks," he said in 2001. "Anyone who wants to fly � study hard now."
Throughout his career he served in Bogota, Aguachica, Villavicencio, Chaparral and Melgar. He was an extremely competent and highly regarded member of the army's aviation.
"Captain Osorio will be remembered as a dedicated pilot who had an infectious energy and a great sense of humour.
The Defence Force has sent an accident investigation team to Pailitas to probe the cause of the crash.
