The Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) announced the first penalties for the case of a helicopter landing on an island of Arrecife Alacranes (Scorpion Reef) last weekend.
These include license suspension and a fine of $365,000 pesos (USD $19,000) to the pilot, and a fine of $2 million pesos (USD$104,000 ) to the company that owns the helicopter.
But these first sanctions levied no penalties on the VIP occupants of the helicopter: the PRI Senator Emilio Gamboa Patrón, the Yucatecan businessman Emilio Diaz Castellanos and the General Coordinator of Ports and Merchant Marine SCT, Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa.
VIPs who deplaned from helicopter boarded a private yacht. (PHOTO: jorgecastronoriega.com)
The sanctions will be applied by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the SCT on the pilot “for disobeying instructions of the aircraft controller” and the company Heliservicio, S.A. de C.V., “for modifying without permission the flight plan and for operating in unauthorized airfields”.
On possible damage to the reef’s protected natural area, the delegate of Profepa in Yucatan, José Lafontaine Hamui, reported that he will soon receive the report on the assessment conducted by inspectors who traveled to the site as soon as they received the complaint about the landing, which was on Friday Sept. 30, according to the SCT, and not Saturday Oct. 1 as initially reported.
Source: yucatan.com.mx
