Pilot initially told investigators “all instruments failed”
Almost a year on from one of the worst losses of life in a single crash of a firefighting aircraft in Portugal, PJ judicial police have announced that the only survivor – the pilot – has been cited as a defendant, indicted for negligent homicide and dangerous driving of a means of transport.
This was the drama that gripped the nation in August last year when an AS350 – Écureuil helicopter fell nose first from the sky into the Douro river, near Samodães, near Lamego.
On board were five elite GNR firefighters, four of them fathers. They were all killed.
The only survivor was 44-year-old pilot Luís Filipe Rebelo who allegedly said from his hospital bed that there was nothing that could have been done as “all instruments failed”.
Fast forward to 2025, and Luís Filipe Rebelo is now a defendant, cited for negligent homicide and dangerous driving.
According to reports today, police carried out an operation in Vila Real on June 27, where both house and non-house searches were carried out, and “various evidentiary material was seized”.
Rebelo has been subjected to a first judicial interrogation, and has been suspended from “performing his duties” (ie flying passengers) and prohibited from making contact with witnesses in the investigation.
The PJ has added that this investigation continues, with the collaboration of the GNR’s Emergency Protection and Relief Unit, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, the Air Force and the National Civil Aviation Authority.
The tragedy that saw the government declare a day of mourning, and Lamego town council suspend its traditional August celebrations in respect for the victims (four of which were local men) took place in the context of a nearby fire to which the GNR team was sent out to help in, but for which the men were not in fact needed. The helicopter carrying them was returning to base in Lamego when the accident happened.
Source material: LUSA
