Relatives and friends of Julio C. Pineda, one of the five Cubans who lost their lives in the Amazon cargo flight accident at Miami International Airport, bid their final farewell at a private event held at Vior Funeral Home, located at 291 Northwest 37th Avenue in the city.
Pineda, 75 years old, lost his life on September 6 when the Boeing 767-300 flight 7598 from 21 Air -operated for Amazon- went off the runway after landing at high speed and struck the van in which he and six other coworkers were returning at the end of an eight-hour shift.
Those who knew him remembered him as a warm-hearted man nicknamed "the Magician" for his magic tricks, jokes, and his habit of giving out candies to the neighborhood children.
" I've known him for 13 years through the Mago. A very helpful person, very charismatic, very affectionate with all the neighbors, with all the children," said his neighbor Jorge Samper to Univisión 23.
Jenny, the wife of one of Pineda's sons, spoke on the phone with Diario Las Américas and acknowledged that the family was still unable to process the loss.
She also mentioned that, until Sunday, September 13, they had not received back her father-in-law’s personal belongings and that the only information they had about the accident was what had been publicly disclosed. Overall, the woman expressed dissatisfaction with the assistance provided by the companies involved with the flight.
Pineda, the father of two children, arrived in the United States from Cuba in May 2001 and had been living in Miami for over two decades, where he worked for Professional Ocean Service Corporation, a cleaning company contracted at MIA.
Janette Suárez, the president of that company, summarized the plight of these invisible victims: "When you sit on the plane, you don't realize the work they do. They have lives. They are people: parents, grandparents, uncles."
Alongside Pineda, four other Cubans passed away: Javierky Reyes Quevedo (47 years old), Carlos Acosta Fajardo (53), Rolando Alemán León (55), and Yoel Rodríguez Naranjo (53).
On Sunday, the farewell to Carlos Arturo Acosta Fajardo also took place. His widower, Nelson Fernández, described him as "such an exceptional person, so special, so original" and summarized his pain in a phrase: "He took my life; he died along with him."
The couple had met in Cuba six years earlier and had been married for three. The blow was twofold: Carlos Acosta Fajardo celebrated his birthday on September 11, just five days after the tragedy.
By the end of Sunday, two formal lawsuits had been filed: one by the widow of Yoel Rodríguez Naranjo and another by the only survivor in stable condition, Roosevelt Perdomo Torres.
The lawyers for the families of Pineda and Acosta Fajardo were still assessing the information before taking legal action, waiting for the investigation to progress.
Preliminary data from the National Transportation Safety Board indicate that the aircraft touched down at 158 knots, a high speed for that phase of the flight. One of the pilots warned multiple times about the excessive speed during the approach.
Flight records also revealed that the throttles were at maximum power in the seconds leading up to the impact and that the aerodynamic brakes and thrust reversers were not deployed.
Although many details have already been uncovered through the analysis of the black box recordings, the official causes of the accident have still not been determined.
Related videos:
Filed under: