A spearhead formed by seven circles on a blue background is, next to the motto "San Javier. Ciudad del Aire", the institutional image of this Murcian town hall and is not something free, because San Javier, and its district of La Ribera, where The General Air Academy (AGA) is located, students who have been trained for decades in military aviation feel like theirs.

In the early afternoon of this Thursday he fell to the Mediterranean, in front of a beach in La Manga, one of the 65 two-seater C-101 that the Army of the Air has in its facilities in San Javier piloted by Commander Eduardo Fermín Garvalena, which occupied the position 5, or "alone", in the formation of seven of the Eagle Patrol.

The death of this 38-year-old military man, born in Granada and father of three daughters, silenced the Mar Menor region and the entire Region of Murcia because the last August and September accidents that cost the lives of four military pilots were too recent . "Three accidents, in half a year, don't seem to be a coincidence."

It is what he thinks was the head of the Eagle Patrol until a few months ago and today Security Councilor in the municipality of San Javier, Rubén Pérez, who in 2005 was a flight instructor in the "blackbird", as he is known these planes, of Commander Garvalena and with whom he agreed in 2018 in the acrobatic group when he was their leader and the military man who died yesterday was a reserve pilot.

In statements to EFE this Friday, the ex-military stressed that attributing these three fatal accidents to the age of the devices is to make a "superficial reading" of what happened, because, according to him, "we must analyze many other factors not only related to the mechanics".

For the ex-chief of the Eagle Patrol, the conditions in which the devices are "may be, but in no case are decisive," and notes: "We must talk about the pressure to which the pilots are subjected, of the flights that they are scheduled, of the other many tasks they have to face ... There are many factors, many, and the bosses have to sit with the pilots and see what happens, under what conditions they go out to train. "

Rubén Pérez, with the "freedom to speak" enjoyed by the Army once he leaves, repeats that what happened in recent months "is not fair for the pilots or for those of us here," because San Javier and his military " they are the same thing. "

Defense Minister Margarita Robles will travel to the Air Academy on Monday and meet with the commanders. From that meeting he does not expect gestures of reproach for the professional stress of the drivers. "Obviously not".

On the discovery this morning of the seat and the remains of the deceased pilot, and the causes that prevented him from ejecting from the two-seater, his instructor explains that "it is not so simple" to execute the ejection in some acrobatic maneuvers, because, "if he catches you, For example, with the lever backwards, you cannot operate the ejection button that is just behind. "

The City Council of San Javier suspended yesterday the carnival events that were going to take place that afternoon in La Ribera and this Friday has decreed official mourning for the death of one of its pilots.

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