MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Air Force still investigating last month's alleged intrusion

“We must be very cautious and not draw hasty conclusions from what happened,” Montero stressed

Chile's Deputy Defense Minister Ricardo Montero said Friday in an interview with Radio Bío Bío that his country's Air Force (FACh) was still investigating the Aug. 27 alleged intrusion of unidentified aircraft in an area near the Strait of Magellan which triggered an emergency response protocol.

 “An investigation was instructed and is being developed by the FACh, which considers different technical aspects and is still in progress,” Montero explained while urging Chileans to wait for the probe's outcome. “We must be very cautious and not draw hasty conclusions from what happened,” he stressed.

Two FACh F-5 fighter jets from the Chabunco air base in Punta Arenas were deployed at around 7 pm local time after the alleged radar sighting on Aug. 27 at an altitude of 3,000 feet between Mount Aymond and the Strait of Magellan but found nothing when they arrived at the area. Some Chilean outlets said the alleged intruder stemmed from Argentina but Buenos Aires claimed to have no knowledge of the incident. “We are not going to take responsibility for something for which we have no responsibility,” a Casa Rosada source was quoted as saying.

Montero also addressed the case of a recent controversy sparked generated by an Argentine military drill simulating a conflict in a fictitious territory, although very similar to Chile. “It is proper of defense to carry out training exercises where military capabilities are tested and coordinated,” explained the official, thus downplaying the relevance of the incident and underlining the existing cooperation with Argentina in defense matters.

“Yesterday we finished two weeks of joint exercises on our coasts, in the framework of 'Unitas 2024', where Argentina and 22 other countries participated,” Montero noted.

After the Aug. 27 incident went public, Defense Minister Maya Fernández said that “contact with this air traffic was lost and an investigation is currently underway.” She also praised the FACH's prompt response defending ”our border and sovereignty as it should.”