Prosecutors in Costa Rica have opened a negligent homicide investigation into the November 2024 crash of a commercial passenger plane on Cerro Pico Blanco, in the mountains above Escazú, that killed five of the six people on board. The Pavas Prosecutor’s Office is handling the case, which aims to determine who could be named as a suspect. No suspects have been publicly identified.
Negligent homicide applies when a person causes another’s death by failing to meet a required duty of care. The prosecutor’s office opened the case after receiving a direct criminal complaint. By then, the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) had already begun its own inquiry.
The aircraft, a single-engine Cessna U206G with registration TI-GER operated by Aero Caribe, crashed on Pico Blanco on November 25, 2024, while flying from Barra del Tortuguero on the northern Caribbean coast toward TobÃas Bolaños International Airport in Pavas. Weather had closed the Pavas airport, and the flight was diverted toward Juan SantamarÃa International Airport before radar and radio contact were lost.
Those killed were Captain Mario Miranda RamÃrez, Ruth Pamela Mora ChavarrÃa, Jean Franco Segura Prendas, Gabriela Calleja Montealegre and Enrique Castillo. The sole survivor, Paola Amador Segura, then 31, was found alive that night after a search and rescue operation that stretched for hours across steep, forested terrain.
A provisional statement issued in December 2025 by the accident investigation unit of the Civil Aviation Technical Council found that Aero Caribe’s operating certificate, issued in 2023 and valid until 2031, did not authorize flights in low-visibility conditions. The document classifies the accident as controlled flight into terrain, in which an aircraft under the pilot’s control is unintentionally flown into the ground.
According to the report, weather stations near the route recorded light rain and mist. Satellite imagery showed dense cloud moving from the Caribbean into the Central Valley, producing fog banks along the second half of the flight, and investigators concluded the crash happened in daylight under adverse weather conditions.
The last radar return showed the plane entering the Pico Blanco area at about 240 kilometers per hour (149 mph). It first struck the treetops roughly 20 meters (66 feet) above the ground, hit the slope at an estimated 15-degree angle and slid about 45 meters (148 feet) before stopping beside a tree trunk.
The wreckage came to rest on a hillside at 2,237 meters (7,339 feet) above sea level. The engine separated from its mount while still producing power and was found about 50 meters (164 feet) from the main wreckage. The report identified no irregularity on the part of the pilot, who held a valid medical certificate and had logged 1,160 flight hours, 830 of them on the aircraft type. Toxicology tests on the pilot and the occupant of the right-hand seat found no alcohol or psychoactive substances.
Investigators stressed that the document is technical and provisional, intended to prevent future accidents rather than assign blame. Its findings remain subject to change, and conclusions and safety recommendations will appear in a final report that has not yet been published.
Aero Caribe has disputed the preliminary findings. The company argues the report is imprecise and leaves out variables that, in its view, shield air traffic controllers at the Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) from responsibility.
In May 2025, the airline and relatives of Miranda, Mora and Castillo filed a criminal complaint for negligent homicide against DGAC air traffic control officials. The complaint alleges that controllers instructed the pilot to hold 1,981 meters (6,500 feet) on a route toward mountainous terrain, in a sector where official charts set a minimum altitude of 3,048 meters (10,000 feet), even though their radar showed obstacles and minimum heights.
Criminal lawyer Federico Campos Calderón, who represents the airline and several of the families, said at the time that they were seeking criminal accountability for the deaths and compensation for damages. The Union of Air Traffic Control Professionals (Sitecna) has called it hasty, premature and irresponsible to issue opinions or assign responsibility before the final technical report is released. The union has urged all parties, particularly Aero Caribe, to wait for the official results.
The DGAC has previously said it could not comment while the technical investigation remains open. No one has been charged, and the prosecutor’s inquiry remains at a preliminary stage. Small aircraft are a common way to reach remote destinations such as Tortuguero, which has no road access. Earlier this year, three people survived a Cessna crash in La Fortuna after an engine failure on takeoff.
Aviation investigators have not announced a release date for the final report on the Pico Blanco crash, which is expected to set out the causes of the accident and safety recommendations.
