On Feb 2, 2013, a Robinson R44 with four aboard was en route on the campaign trail from Concepcion to Asuncion when it crashed in bad weather, south of Concepcion Paraguay near Puerto Antequera, in the Chaco region.
The pilot’s last message was at 9 p.m. local time, when he said that they were changing course due to a storm. The control tower then lost contact.
The pilot, two body guards and Lino Oviedo, a presidential candidate was killed in the crash.
A search arm of the national police rescue team found the burnt corpses of those aboard the plane on February 3rd, a day after they were reported missing and disappeared from radar. Troops of the Search and Rescue Service, composed of staff of the Air Force and the Volunteer Fire Department assisted in the search.
Witnesses who saw the crash site said that the helicopter “disintegrated.”
Oviedo was a retired general who assisted in overthrowing Alfredo Stroessner in 1989; he died on the anniversary of the coup.
