◆ SpookStack

In an attempt to salvage the Helio that Col. Batres had piled up on the sod runway at President Ydigoras's plantation, a C-46 was dispatched from MADD, with an American pilot and an American co-pilot, plus 5 Cubans and 4 Guatemalans to assist in the salvage operation. In approaching the sod field at the Ydigoras plantation, a sudden gust of wind caught the C-46 and threw the left wing tip into the top of a coconut tree, with the result ~~at the plane, despite the best efforts of the American crewmen, hit a clump of trees, cart- o wheeled, and was totally destroyed in the subsequent fire. Fortunately, however, the crewmen and all pas- sengers on the aircraft escaped serious injury. Less fortunate however, was a Guatemalan worker who had been picking coconuts in the tree that the plane hit on its initial approach. He was killed when he fell out of the tree to the ground. a warped right wing tip, probable engine damage, probable propeller damage, a O windshield popped out, a buckled top right wing, rudder controls ripped loose, a bent control column, fuselage tube framing was broken, the left fuselage door entrance buckled, and the right stabilizer slightly buckled. 79/ - 151 -