New Delhi: It was a fact well established by the mid and late 1980s that drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, the founder and leader of the Medellín drug cartel was a notorious criminal who would stop at nothing to fulfil his goal. Pablo’s Medellín cartel is often considered to be the first major “drug cartel” since the upper strata of the organization and overall power structure was based on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. He was a wanted man by the US administration, but when he blew up the Avianca Flight 203 on November 27, 1989, and killed 107 people on board, the infamous reputation of Pablo Escobar reached a whole new level that shocked the world.
The tragedy of Avianca Flight 203
Avianca Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight which flew from Bogotá to Cali in Colombia. It was a Boeing 727-21 aircraft which was built in 1966. It was in 1989 that the aircraft had its maiden flight.
Avianca Flight 203: The Catastrophic Bombing
On November 27, 1989, Avianca Flight 203 took off at 7:13 a.m. After five minutes, an explosive charge detonated and the fuel vapours in the empty central fuel tank caught fire. A second blast took place and the aircraft was ripped to pieces. The tragedy killed all 107 people on board and three people died on the ground after being hit by falling debris.
Pablo Escobar’s Motive: Targeting a Presidential Candidate
Pablo Escobar planned the bombing ahead of the 1990 general elections in Colombia to kill César Gaviria Trujillo, the presidential candidate. According to one account, two unidentified men of Escobar carried the bomb on board. They sat above the main fuel tank and while one of them left, the other stayed on board.
Alberto Prieto, a young Colombian man was tricked into activating the bomb as he was told the device was just a recorder he needed to use to record the conversation of a couple in the flight. However, Gaviria was not on board the aircraft and he later became the Colombian President. Two Americans died in the explosion which led the US government to start Intelligence Support Activity operations to find Escobar. In 1993, the Colombian National Police killed Escobar in his hometown.
Drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, the founder and leader of the Medellín drug cartel was a notorious criminal who would stop at nothing to fulfil his goal. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
