Sebastián Piñera, former president of Chile, dies in a helicopter accident

The former president of Chile Sebastián Piñera died Tuesday at the age of 74 in a helicopter crash in Ranco, an area located some 570 miles south of Santiago. The former president’s office confirmed his death: “It is with deep regret that we announce the death of the former president of the Republic of Chile, Sebastián Piñera Echenique [...] Information about his funeral will be provided in due course. We are grateful for the massive expressions of affection and concern that we have received during these bitter hours.”

President Gabriel Boric decreed three days of national mourning and a state funeral with honors for Sebastián Piñera, and appointed Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren as head of the organization’s committee. “This fact moves us as a country in especially difficult circumstances: the tragedy of the wildfires that in these days has hit many of our compatriots. It is with deep sorrow that I wish to express my condolences to his family, to all those close to him and to those who were part of his two governments,” said the President from La Moneda, the presidential residence. “I extend a warm fraternal embrace to his wife Cecilia Morel, to his children Magdalena, Cecilia, Sebastián and Cristóbal. And also to all Chilean men and women who today receive this news with sorrow and pain,” he said.

Boric added that “President Piñera contributed from his vision to build great agreements for the good of the nation”. “He was a democrat from the first hour. He genuinely sought what he believed was best for the country, as when he took on the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of February 27, 2010; or when he gambled with great decision or audacity to rescue the 33 miners from the San José mine. Or in the management of the pandemic in times of global uncertainty”, added the current president.

Earlier, from the same presidential palace, Minister of the Interior Carolina Tohá confirmed the death this afternoon from La Moneda and sent condolences to the family of the former president and to all Chileans. “A helicopter crashed with its four crew members. Three of them managed to reach the shore by their own means, they are out of danger, but it was not the case of the fourth crew member, who was former President Sebastián Piñera. A few moments ago we received confirmation from the Carabineros (the national police) that the Navy was able to reach the place where the accident occurred and recover the body” of the deceased former president, Tohá said.

The minister expressed the government’s shock at the death of “Chile’s democratic president” and said that he will have “all the honors and republican recognition he deserves.” “President Piñera governed us and we will remember him for the way he gave and dedicated his life to public service,” Tohá assured.

Former socialist president Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010; 2014-2018) has also lamented the passing. Both were in La Moneda for two terms, and they handed each other the presidential sash. “In these difficult moments, my condolences to his family, friends and loved ones, to Renovación Nacional and to all Chileans who suffer today with his loss. I always valued former President Piñera’s commitment to our country and to democracy, as well as his tireless work and service to the Nation. May he rest in peace”.

Piñera was piloting the helicopter that crashed in the Ilihue sector, near his home, located in Bahía Coique, where he spent his summers with his family every February. Three other people were traveling with him, who survived but are injured. Tuesday was a rainy day in Ranco and the former president, an expert pilot, had faced more than one emergency landing in the past. This afternoon, according to initial reports, Piñera had left the house of his friend José Cox, a businessman, flying a Robinson R 66 helicopter.

The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service, Senapred, was the first to report that Firefighters, Carabineros, the Emergency Medical Care Service (SAMU) and the Navy were working at the scene. A video shows the moment when Piñera’s body was pulled out of Lake Ranco — which is partly why confirmation of his death was delayed — while groups of people sang the national anthem. Later, the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) stated that the helicopter, registration CC-PHP, went down just a few minutes after take-off, in the vicinity of the Ilhue sector: “After take-off and after a few minutes of flight, it crashed on the spot, with four people on board, among whom was the former President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera Echenique, who died in this unfortunate accident. The rest of the occupants of the aircraft managed to survive”.

Piñera, president between 2010 and 2014 and 2018 and 2022, was the most right-wing president since democracy was restored in Chile and one of the founders of Renovación Nacional (National Renewal, in English), one of the main parties of the traditional Chilean right.

Married since 1973 to Cecilia Morel — with whom he has four children —, Piñera combined politics with his businesses for many years. At the end of the seventies, he obtained representation rights in Chile for Visa and MasterCard, and since then, his subsequent ventures grew in ambition and success. He was the main shareholder of the airline Lan Chile (now Latam), the television channel Chilevisión and Blanco y Negro, the company that manages one of the most popular soccer clubs in the country, Colo-Colo. But this crossover between money and politics was not gratuitous for Piñera: both his ability to make money and to use loopholes to his advantage were his main Achilles heel in his political life.

Born in Santiago de Chile in 1949, he is the third of the six children born to Magdalena Echenique and José Piñera Carvallo, an engineer and diplomat who was the founder of the Chilean Christian Democracy, the party that for decades represented the country’s middle class. The reasons why the former president did not join his father’s party and ended up joining the right have never been entirely clear.

The president died in the midst of a period of national mourning decreed by President Gabriel Boric for the death of more than 130 people in a series of wildfires that have ravaged the central-southern part of the country.

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