ARCHIVED - Another plane from the San Javier Air Academy crashes into the Mediterranean killing the pilot

Pilot Eduardo Fermín Garvalena of the Eagle Patrol display team was killed

🔴ÚLTIMA HORA.
Se confirma el fallecimiento del comandante Eduardo Garvalena Crespo de la #PatrullaÁguila en el accidente de su avión C-101 en La Manga.
Imágenes de la zona de @salvasansoto. pic.twitter.com/1O9snaY1t9

— RTVE Murcia (@RTVEMurcia) February 27, 2020

Tragedy struck the Air Force Academy in San Javier for the third time in the last six months when a C-101 crashed into the waters of the Mediterranean off La Manga del Mar Menor just before 16:00 this Thursday afternoon.

The 38 year old pilot, an acting member of the Patrulla Águila air display team, and married with three children, was killed in the accident.

The accident took place close to the scene of the first tragedy to strike the air academy in August 2019 when pilot Francisco Marín, also piloting a C-101, crashed into the waters off the coast of La Manga del Mar Menor during a training exercise.

38 year old Comandante Garvalena had substituted Francisco Marín, the pilot killed in August last year and came from a family of pilots; his father had also trained at the air academy.

On the 18th September a Tamar training plane plummeted into the Mar Menor close by killing instructor Daniel Melero and pupil Rosa Maria Almirón.

The accident today took place in the Mediterranean off km 6.5 of la Manga del Mar Menor during training. 

Comandante Garvalena flew as "Eagle 5" and had accumulated more than 2,300 hours of flying time during his career.

According to the Ministry of Defense website he had been part of the 142 Squadron, Wing 14 (F-1) 2007-2013; 142 Squadron, Wing 14 (Eurofighter) 2014-2017 and 793 Squadron, AGA (C-101) since 2017, and had participated in the international Baltic Air Policing missions in Lithuania in 2016 and Operation Atalanta in Djibouti in 2018.

He was an expert pilot, and in this last mission had flown protective missions to deter attacks by somali Pirates and protect vessels forming part of the World Food Programme.

Only yesterday the Eagle Patrol published photographs of the new team reporting that they were "calentando motores", busy getting ready, almost ready to go, for the new season of aerobatic displays in which the Eagle Patrol participates worldwide and which have been such a thrill for residents during the displays in which they have participated.

Often seen over the Mar Menor training, they are a privilege to watch and the expat community is shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the accident.

According to eyewitnesses, the accident occurred during one of the regular training missions flown over this area, the aircraft plummetting, failing to regain height and crashing into the Mediterranean.

112 services were alerted by onlookers that the plane had crashed into the sea and vessels from the Guardia Civíl, Salvamento Marítimo, the Air Force, Protección Civíl, supported by a rescue helicopter and aircraft belonging to the Regional Emergency Services, as well as divers from the private company Offshore Special Services(OSS) contracted by the Ayuntamiento of San Javier immediately activated a search to locate the plane and pilot.

The plane was found after a short search with the pilot inside, having failed to eject from the cockpit before the impact.

C101's are due to be replaced

In November Spain’s Ministry of Defence announced that the C-101 jet planes used by pilots at the air force training academy in San Javier (the Academia General del Aire, or AGA) are to be replaced by the autumn of 2021,following the death of former Patrulla Águila pilot Commander Francisco Marín in August when his plane plunged into the Mediterranean just off La Manga del Mar Menor.

In a tragic few weeks for the AGA this was the first of two fatal accidents, the second involving a trainee and her instructor on 16^th September who crashed into the Mar Menor, although on that occasion the C-101 was not involved.

The C-101, which has been in use at San Javier for 40 years and has become a common sight in the sky above the Mar Menor and the east of the Region of Murcia, will be phased out gradually to be completely replaced for the 2021-22 year at the AGA by the Swiss-manufactured Pilatus PC-21, a turboprop plane rather than a jet. The acquisition of 24 aircraft will cost the Ministry over 204 million euros (at just over 8.5 million each), representing a 9 per cent saving on the budget originally set aside in April – before the death of Commander Marín, it should be noted, indicating that the replacement of the C-101 was already planned before the fatal accident.

Among the features of the Pilatus which made it the preferred option over a bid submitted by Textron Aviation Defense are land-based training systems, two cabin simulators and the turboprop engine, which is similar to fifth-generation fighter planes and provides trainees with a complete aeronautical training from their first flight experience to the moment they are ready to pilot actual fighter planes.

The first six new planes are scheduled to be delivered as early as March 2020 but will be used as trainer aircraft from the 2021-22 course onwards, while the Ministry now weighs up options to replace the 149 F-5 planes currently used at the AGA in “hunt and attack” training (phases III and IV of the program).

But the phasing out of the C-101s will not only affect trainee pilots: the Patrulla Águila aerobatics squadron will also be making the transition to the Pilatus, and it is reported that while on the one hand they have a sentimental attachment to the jets they have been flying for decades the new aircraft is technically superior. Similarly, there are feelings of regret that the Spanish-made C-101 is to be replaced by a Swiss plane, but on a practical level there is ample justification, certainly following the tragic accident this afternoon.

Last month the Minister for Defence, Margarita Robles, confirmed during a visit to the region, that the investigation into the three deaths of last year had still not yielded conclusive results. No decision had been taken either as to whether the minesweeper Turia, which ran aground during attempts to retrieve the remains of the C-101, would be repaired or scrapped. This decision, she said, had not been made until a full evaluation of the costs had been finalised.

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Image: AGA Air Academy.