Allegiance Chile Died 1914 Years of service 1909 - 1914 Service/branch Chilean Army | Name Alejandro Bello Rank First lieutenant Role Aviator | |
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Alejandro Bello
First Lieutenant Alejandro Bello Silva (1887 – c. 1914) was a Chilean aviator who disappeared during his qualifying flight for certification as a military pilot.
Contents
- Alejandro Bello
- Alejandro bello ejercicio perdidos de acting master class with paul calderon
- Biography
- Disappearance
- Search
- Lieutenant Bello in popular culture
- References
Alejandro bello ejercicio perdidos de acting master class with paul calderon
Biography
The third of four sons of José Maria Bello (the son of Andrés Bello) and Ana Rosa Silva, Bello lived in Ancud, Chile as a child, due to his father's banishment after the 1891 Chilean Civil War.
Disappearance
In the pre-dawn hours of 9 March 1914, Lieutenant Bello was in the Lo Espejo aerodrome, where he was to take an examination to earn the designation Military Pilot. Bello and two companions had to complete the circuit from Lo Espejo to Culitrín, to Cartagena, and back to Lo Espejo, in the central region of Chile, in order to pass the exam. The total distance of the flight was 111 miles, and should have taken two hours to complete.
On the first attempt, the aviators had to return to base due to near-zero visibility caused by heavy fog. Bello damaged his aircraft during the landing, and switched to an 80 horsepower (60 kW) Sánchez-Besa biplane (tail number 13, nicknamed "Manuel Rodríguez") for the second attempt. He took off together with one companion and the instructor, who had to make an emergency landing for refueling. Nevertheless, Bello continued his route and was lost among the clouds.
Search
Search efforts were initiated the very day Bello disappeared. Several people claimed to have seen the aircraft land or crash, but these sightings were unsubstantiated. Various theories proposed at the time suggested that Bello had crashed into the sea or that the wrecked craft would be found in a mountain pass. Several expeditions were launched to locate a crash site, including one as recently as 1988, but no traces were found either of Lieutenant Bello or of the plane he was piloting.
On 28 November 2007 an expedition set out for the commune of San Antonio, Chile. Two metal fragments belonging to an aircraft were found in the Cuncumén hills.
Jaime González Colville, of the Chilean Academy of History, considered it very unlikely that the remains of Lieutenant Bello should be found near Cuncumén.