SAN-100 helicopter crash in Panama
National Aeronaval Service Helicopter · Collision of a helicopter with a building. Faults and irregularities in the condition and operation of the aircraft
From Colón Province to Panama City
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08RA197
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 11 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Helicopter Possible conflict
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- SAN-100
- Operator
- National Aeronaval Service
- Onboard fatalities
- 11
- Route
- From Colón ProvinceTo Panama City
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The SAN-100 helicopter crash in Panama was an aviation accident that occurred on 29 May 2008 in Panama City, involving a helicopter with registration «SAN-100» belonging to that country's National Aeronaval Service (SENAN), causing the deaths of its 12 occupants, among them José Alejandro Bernales, then General Director of the Carabineros de Chile.
Accident
During an official visit to Panama by the General Director of the Carabineros de Chile, José Alejandro Bernales, the helicopter with registration SAN-100 in which he was travelling with his wife and 10 other people plunged onto the Calidonia neighbourhood in Panama City, crashing into a building occupied by the Banana Price store, on Thursday 29 May 2008 at 14:13 (UTC-5). The impact set the aircraft and the building on fire.
Eleven of the twelve occupants died, including six Chileans, among whom were Bernales and his wife Teresa Bianchini; Majors Ricardo Orozco and Óscar Tapia, and the latter's wife Carolina Reyes; and Captain Mauricio Fuenzalida. Also killed were the pilot Juan Delgado; María Angélica González de Celis and Gerardo Polanco, commissioners of the National Police (PN); Captain Calixto Cedeño and Sergeant Reynaldo Cerna. Only Ernaldo Carrasco, the aircraft's co-pilot, survived. Bernales was the first General Director of the Carabineros to die in office since the founding of the institution.
Investigation and cause
Investigation and reparation
The expert examinations carried out by various bodies and companies from several countries detected a series of faults and irregularities in the condition and operation of the aircraft, among them turbine failures, an expired pilot's licence, the operator's limited flight experience, signs of material fatigue in the aircraft, among others. In addition, there were documents issued by the National Government of the Republic of Panama itself warning against using that helicopter for official flights.
The lawyers for the Bernales Bianchini family considered a claim for damages against the Panamanian State, alleging negligence because the helicopter was not in a condition to make that flight, both because of its precarious safety conditions and because those piloting the aircraft did not meet the necessary requirements to do so.
Finally, the governments of Chile and Panama decided to establish through diplomatic channels a «Reparation Round Table», which lasted several months and took place in various Latin American cities, including Santiago, Panama and Buenos Aires. The State of Panama undertook to compensate the entire Chilean delegation for an amount totalling USD 6.7 million.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del helicóptero SAN-100 en Panamá” (revision 175010327, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On May 29, 2008, at 1410 central daylight time, a Bell UH-1H, operated by the Panamanian Servicio Aereo Nacional (SAN) as SAN-100, was destroyed when it impacted buildings in Panama City, Panama. The Panamanian pilot in command, the Panamanian flight mechanic, three Panamanian passengers and six Chilean passengers were fatally injured, and the Panamanian copilot was seriously injured. There were no injuries on the ground. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the visual flight rules flight that departed Enrique A. Jimenez Airport (MONX), Colon, Panama, at 1326, destined for a waterfront hotel landing pad in Panama City, Panama. The VIP transport flight was conducted under Panamanian flight regulations.
According to Panamanian authorities, the passengers included senior officials from both Panama and Chile, including the Director General of the Chilean National Police (Los Carabineros), who were attending an international conference.
A radar review revealed that while approaching the hotel helipad from seaward (from the south, over the Bay of Panama), the helicopter made one 360-degree turn, then another 270-degree turn, and headed eastward toward a different part of the shoreline. Crossing the shoreline, it appeared to be headed over buildings, toward Marco A. Gelabert (Albrook) Airport (MPMG), Panama City, Panama, before disappearing from the radar. The helicopter's altitudes were not recorded.
According to the copilot, while approaching the hotel helipad, the helicopter experienced a power loss from the left engine, making it impossible to land at the pad. The crew concentrated on maintaining flight, and headed toward Marco A. Gelabert Airport. En route, the helicopter impacted the top of a building.
An examination of the accident scene revealed that the majority of the tailboom was on the roof of a four-story building, the majority of the cabin, including the engines, was on the roof of a second, lower building, and that the majority of the cockpit had continued off the second building, down into a street.
A subsequent examination of the wreckage and engines in a hanger revealed that the airframe and flight controls had no preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operations, and that the left engine "was not operating normally at the time of the accident." The engines were subsequently transported to the manufacturer for further examination under Panamanian oversight.
The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Panama. Further information may be obtained from:
Autoridad Aeronautica Civil (AAC) Aeropuerto Marcos A. Gelarbert Via Diogenes de la Rosa, Edificio 805 Apartado 7501 o 7615 Panama 5, Republica de Panama
Tel: (507) 501-9300 http://www.aeronautica.gob.pa
This report is for informational purposes only, and contains only information released by, or obtained from the government of Panama.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del helicóptero SAN-100 en Panamá
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 175010327 · 2026-08-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q5756355
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record NYC08RA197
- Event ID
- 20080610X00823
- Case number
- NYC08RA197
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del helicóptero SAN-100 en Panamá" (page 5500973, revision 175010327), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case NYC08RA197 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record NYC08RA197
- Operation
- operator is an armed force according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "SAN-100 helicopter crash in Panama" and NTSB case NYC08RA197, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.