MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires airport saboteur arrested

Aerolineas Argentinas flight 1964 could have ended up in a tragedy involving other aircraft.

A 58-year-old private pilot who on Monday posed as a control tower operator at Buenos Aires' Jorge Newbery airport was arrested Tuesday and held incommunicado.

Fabián Penín “cleared” for takeoff an Aerolíneas Argentinas flight bound for Bariloche in what could have ended up in a catastrophic mid-air collision. But flight AR1964 Captain Martín Mucciarelli noticed some incoherence with the vectors indicated by Penin and refrained from carrying out his instructions.

When Mucciarelli realized what was going on and said so on the radio, EANA (Argentine Air Navigation Company) authorities halted all operations and summoned Airport Security Police, who found Penín with a portable device deployed at the north end of the terminal. He was arrested and his pilot's license was revoked. But he was later released.

He was aprehended again on Tuesday at the request of Federal Prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, who put things in perspective and concluded that Monday's interference of an airport radio frequency was not a minor incident.

There was also speculation that it could have been somehow connected with the arrival of G-20 leaders in Buenos Aires at the end of the month.