A plane once associated with death flights in Argentina is soon to be brought back to the country and put on display. The decision to repatriate the aircraft is to recognize a dark chapter in Argentina's history and to rebuke those who claim that death flights never took place.

For the surviving family members of those who disappeared, bringing the plane back to Argentina raises mixed emotions as it is a time they would like to forget. Not everyone favors the aircraft returning to Argentina, with the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association calling for it to be melted down and made to resemble a white headscarf that symbolizes their cause.

A survivor of the junta and an Italian photographer found the plane

After visiting Argentina, aviation geek Italian photographer Giancarlo Ceraudo became interested in the aircraft used for the death flights. While there, he met death camp survivor Miriam Lewin and together, the pair set about trying to find the missing planes. They thought that finding the aircraft and their log books would enable them to bring to justice the pilots involved in the death flights.

Now a topic most people want to forget, during the so-called Argentinian Dirty War between 1974 and 1983, the military junta which ruled Argentina would gather dissidents and then make them disappear. Their target was political opponents, people, trade unionists, writers, artists, students, and anyone suspected of being a left-wing activist.

They would drug people and throw them out of planes over the ocean

During the Dirty War, activists would be clandestinely rounded up and then conveniently disappear without a trace. The military junta did this using what is now called "death flights." The prisoners would be told that they were being transferred to camps in southern Argentina and that they needed to be vaccinated beforehand.

Rather than giving them an injection that would protect them, they were given a shot of Sodium Pentothal, a barbiturate used in general anesthesia to render a person unconscious. They were then taken to an airfield, stripped, tied up, and bundled upon a plane. The aircraft would then take off, and once it was far enough out over the South Atlantic, the victims would be dumped into the ocean. Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that as many as 20,000 people died because of the death flights.

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The plane was found in Florida

Eventually, Ceraudo and Lewin tracked down five Argentinian Navy Short SC.7 Skyvan's. Two of them had been shot down by the British during the 1982 Falkland War. Two more had been scrapped, leaving just one they found at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL). A courier company was using the plane to fly goods to the Bahamas.

After going over the log book, one particular flight stood out. The Skyvan had off from Buenos Aries and returned to the same airport a few hours later without stopping. The pilots of the flight were tracked down and convicted of murder. For Lewin, bringing the plane back to Argentina is full of mixed emotions, telling the UK Guardian newspaper:

"When I first saw the plane in Fort Lauderdale in 2014 I wasn't able to go onboard. I could have died on that plane myself and many people I knew died on it. I don't know how I will react now."

The aircraft is currently at Marana Regional Airport (AVQ) near Tucson, Arizona, where it is used for skydiving and parachuting. Because of the plane's short range, it must make nine stops on its flight back to Argentina. Once there, it will be displayed at a memorial at what was once a complex where state-sponsored torture took place.

Source: The Guardian