Asas Asses kicked

[Jaap]

Starting with the Portugese Wikipedia statement:

"Em 2010 os Asas de Portugal foram desactivados após um incidente envolvendo danos numa aeronave causados por esta ter embatido numa árvore e tal não ter sido declarado aos oficias superiores."

(In 2010 the Asas de Portugal was deactivated after an incident involving aircraft damage that was not reported to higher command)
(Edit: Thanks to Frank a new translation)

we received the following from our Portugese correspondant.

I cannot fully comment on that, because its a matter of which we are ashamed ... But
it's true that following an incident, the team was not even grounded for accident
investigation, and after some time all the members of the team (including
technicians) were suspended and the team was subsequently deactivated.

So no Asas in 2010 unfortunately.

Jaap

[frank kramer]

My Portuguese is not up to scratch, but it appears that a vital clue was lost in translation of the Portuguese text in English... if I'm correct that says that the incident was initially kept secret from higher authority. In plain English: a cover up of something that was not supposed to have happened.

@mods: please feel free to delete this if I'm way off the mark, or alternately if I'm spot on and treading on someone's toes...

[Trueno]

Well, I do know the story from a "Portuguese" himself.... I can not mention any names but the truth is that during some practise one pilot decided to make not authorised manouevres near Montijo airbase and hit a tree with it's wings. Fortunatelly the pilot was able to save his ass and plane, and landed safely. It seems that they kept this from the Cmdr for several days, finally the thruth came out..... a shame for the unit, as the Asas are a very welcome sight and a very professional team. So... no Asas for the next year(s)

Cheers,

Trueno