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Two Pilots Face Extradition in Dirty War Death Flights
Some 1,000 Argentines were hurled into sea
By Jason Farago
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Posted Oct 6, 09 5:23 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Two Argentines charged with piloting notorious "death flights" during the country's brutal military dictatorship are facing extradition. The pilots, one arrested in Argentina and the other in Spain, are accused of flying the flights from which more than 1,000 drugged and blindfolded students, intellectuals, and trade unionists were hurled into the sea. More than 30,000 people "disappeared" during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Both men were seized after telling colleagues about their alleged participation, reports CNN. One of the pilots told a fellow aviator that chucking subversives out of planes was a humane way to kill people, since they were drugged before being thrown to their death. He also reportedly told another pilot that the dictatorship "should have killed them all." But he also admitted "some responsibility." When "you fly persons on board the responsibility lies with the pilot," he said.