AviaciónBoliviana.Net ::

*Tulio Soto on Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:26 am*

This information was provided by Enrique "Xiofano" and reviewed and corrected as needed, by my former flight instructor, who flew in Nicaragua.

Posted by ENRIQUE on June 08, 2001 at 22:46:25:

Hola amigo:

I am sending you some information about the CASA 212; as you may know Nicaragua had 7 CASA 212s in service, two commercial and five in military service; by mid 1979 only two military CASAs were in service; those two a/c were in FAS service 221 &
222 (ex-FAN 421 & 420).

FAS 221 was given to the Bolivian Air Force in the mid 90's; that a/c saw service almost 20 years. I don' t know what happened with the 222.

NOTE [revision and corrections]:

222 is now dumped in Managua, without wings (fuselage only) besides a hangar, next to the old "helicopter conversion" hangar. Data via RS Dec302001. The Hangar de conversiones was used to convert CH-34s to S-58Ts and was built during Somoza's time. Of the two commercial CASAs (AERONICA - YN-BYZ), was damaged when the pilot while taking off put the engines in reverse; no deaths from this. The other airplane (YN-BYY) was sold to a company in the USA. (AERONICA's CASAs arrived in 1983)

The AERONICA's CASAs were series 200. Via RS. CASA 212 crashed not in San Juan del Sur as it has been reported elsewhere, but in Rivas. The Captain of the aircraft was Capitan P.A. Reynaldo Blanco (a.k.a. El Macho Blanco). Not all those on board died, but 8 of them were killed in the accident. The pilot survived the accident, and after the war he emmigrated to Miami. The accident was caused by loss of power in one of the engines, due to a primary fuel filter clog.

The date for the accident probably happened on July 08, 1979. FAN serial number is Unknown.

Dead:

A Mechanic, a foreign parachute instructor (either a Panamanian or a Cuban national), the remainder were officers and soldiers, all of them parachutists. A Captain survived with hip and leg fractures.

Another Aviocar fell in the Casa Colorada Mountains (pilot, Subtte. Leonel Caldera, A.k.a.: El Maño) while enroute from Montelimar to Managua; during that period of time, the aircraft were flown late at night to Montelimar, to safeguard them from possible enemy attack. Pilot began descent earlier than usual, crashing into the mountains; approximate time of accident was 04:50AM; date of accident was February 25, 1979.

Saludos,
Tulio

Re: Sandinista Arava/CASA aircraft
by Curazoleno on Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:50 pm

Gents,

I can confirm the hulk of C212 FAS222 is still in Managua, it was last noted there in March 2008. The c/n of this aircraft has been checked on site as 80. FAS221 was c/n 90, this could be the aircraft that has been transferred to Bolivia, corresponding with Tulio's information. Its just the mix up of the two c/ns it seems.

grtz Wim Sonneveld - Scramble