Yak-42: seis años en la niebla. Informe semanal 25/4/09
Video from the channel Crónica semanal about Yakovlev Yak-42, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:51. Language: Spanish. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
A TV report on the trial over the misidentification of 30 of the 62 Spanish soldiers who died in the Yak-42 accident. It brings together statements from relatives, lawyers and two forensic examiners from Istanbul's Forensic Medicine Institute who travelled to Madrid to give their account, along with archive footage of the state funeral.
When and where it was filmed
According to the title, it is a piece from the programme Informe Semanal, broadcast on 25 April 2009, almost six years after the accident, which was re-uploaded in 2021. It was filmed in Spain, during the final stage of the trial in Madrid.
Context
The Yakovlev 42 crashed in Turkey with 75 people on board, 62 of them Spanish soldiers returning from Afghanistan. General Vicente Navarro led the Ministry of Defence team tasked with recovering and repatriating the bodies, which arrived the following day at Torrejón air base for the state funeral. Three military officers stood trial, with Navarro as the main defendant, and the prosecutor sought up to five years in prison for document falsification. Doubts about the identifications arose five months after the accident, when the families travelled to Turkey. There, Turkish forensic examiners confirmed to them that some bodies could not have been identified. The families are demanding that the political officials of the time testify. Federico Trillo, whom Congress identified as politically responsible for the accident, had tendered his resignation to José María Aznar, who did not accept it. Javier Jiménez-Ugarte denied having pressured the Turkish forensic examiners.