Raised to the status of a world celebrity after surviving a plane crash and 36 days in the jungle, pilot Antônio Araújo de Sena was denounced by the MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) for transporting dangerous cargo in an aircraft that was unable to fly to an illegal mining site. located inside a conservation unit, in the north of Pará.
In a statement to the PF (Federal Police) attached to the complaint, revealed by the Infoamazonia website and confirmed by the leaf, Sena admitted that he was hired by a mine owner to transport about 600 liters of diesel oil from Alenquer (PA) to the California mine, next to the better-known 13 de Maio mine, located within the Maicuru Rebio (Biological Reserve). It is a category of integral conservation unit that does not allow human presence.
Based on PF expertise, the MPF states that the flight was in disagreement with the rules of Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) for having as destination an unapproved runway, for having taken off with 135 kg of overload and also for having an electrical system. dead.
If convicted, the pilot could face 4 to 12 years in prison.
In addition to Sena, João Batista Ribeiro, known as Tuchaua, who hired the pilot, and Edivaldo Paiva Carvalho, owner of the aircraft, were indicted. In parallel, the PF is also investigating the owners of the mine and whether the plane, model Cessna 210, had already been used for drug trafficking.
In the deposition, Sena says that he had never flown to garimpos before, but admits that he worked for about five years for the company Piquiatuba Táxi Aéreo.
The owner, Armando Amâncio da Silva, who died in 2020, was one of the biggest miners in the Amazon. Its operations were also within Rebio Maicuru. In October 2020, the PF seized 44 kg of gold in his home safe.
The accident with Sena occurred on January 28, 2021. In the following weeks, the pilot reports having survived alone in the Amazon rainforest until he found a family of chestnut trees. The story yielded hundreds of interviews, including for this leaf, appearances in TV shows, such as Encontro com Fátima Bernardes, on TV Globo.
At the end of the year, the pilot published a book that, according to his press office, will be made into a film and will have a version translated into French.
Sought by the report, Sena did not respond to specific questions, including his relationship with the miner owner Armando Amâncio. In a press release, he states that he is unaware of “the possible complaint and, consequently, the accusations against me.”
“I am surprised at the possibility of being held liable for a possible criminal action, as I do not see, in my conduct in this episode, any committing a crime. talk about probabilities in the face of media exploitation,” he said.
“I want more and more life. And a dignified life. If, for me, the ephemeral activity almost took my life, my salvation came precisely through the extractivists I encountered on my journey back from the darkness, which proved that it is possible to forest resources without harming it”, he said.
The report did not locate the defenses of the accused Ribeiro and Carvalho.
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