Argentine pilots charged over 'death flights'

[Judi Lynn]

Friday June 3, 2011
Argentine pilots charged over 'death flights'
By Claudia Gaillard

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Three Argentine pilots were charged on Thursday over dictatorship-era "death flights," when drugged political prisoners were thrown from military planes into the River Plate, court sources said.

The indictment was ordered as part of an investigation into crimes committed at the infamous ESMA Naval Mechanics School during the 1976-1983 "Dirty War," during which as many as 30,000 people were kidnapped and killed.

"In the ESMA, they gave them a weak tranquilizer and then when they got into the plane, they took off their clothes, took off the handcuffs, and then gave them the final injection. They threw them out sleeping and alive," prosecution lawyer Horacio Mendez Carreras told Reuters Television.

About 5,000 suspected leftist dissidents were held at the clandestine detention center. Many died during the secret death flights and few bodies were recovered.

More:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/3/worldupdates/2011-06-03T031445Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-574650-1&sec=Worldupdates