A small plane for agricultural use model PZL M-18popularly known as “dromedaries”, HE crashed on the morning of Thursday, June 20, while operating near the town of Peralejo, in the municipality of La Sierpe, Sancti Spiritus.
The accident occurred while the device “was carrying out routine fumigation of rice crops”assured Ernesto Cuéllar, director of the Base Business Unit of the National Air Services Company (ENSA) of Sancti Spíritus, to the official local newspaper. Escambray.
The pilot of the device, named Armando Leyva Sosa, 57 years old, suffered a simple head trauma and decompensation of blood pressure, indicated Dr. Eduardo Contreras Lara, director of Regional Base No. 10 of the Integrated Medical Emergency System of Sancti Spíritus. .
According to the report, Leyva Sosa was transferred to the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital “for a more in-depth evaluation, but there is no report of danger to life,” said Contreras Lara.
In accordance with Escambray, “a commission of experts investigates on site the causes that led to such an unfortunate accident.”
In April 2023, a similar aircraft to the now damaged one, the PZL M18B, piloted by the Cuban Léster Pérez Sánchez, fell to the ground from a great height also in La Sierpe.
The first secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Communist Party, Julio Bismar Hernández, then assured in a publication on his Facebook profile that This accident was due to “presumptive technical damage to the engine.”
Also on that occasion the authorities told Escambray that an “investigation team” was going to “determine the causes of the accident.” The results of that investigation were never made public.
The PZL, manufactured in Poland and developed in the 1970s, is widely used in Cuba both to tend agricultural plantations and to extinguish fires. The technical state of these devices is unknown, as are the years of operation they have been in use for.
