Avenger | 4. The Planes

Hello, Avenger listeners, It's Steve Fishman and I'm really glad you've tuned in. I hope you love this show as much as we do. A quick word on an upcoming bonus episode. We're doing a bonus with Miriam, the real Miriam. We'll be asking her questions, your questions and getting answers. She'll update us on what's going on in her world and a lot has Please email your questions or thoughts or comments too. Info at Orbitmedia dot fm. Oh and Fisher Stevens can answer your questions too. He's our co

Thanks.

Before we begin, please note that for this story we interviewed Medium and everyone else for dozens of hours in Spanish. We hired actors to voice their words in English between jokes, pasta and coffee. The search for the planes used during the dictatorship continues slowly, a lot slower than Medium and jih Gadlo would like. They fall into a routine. After Medium's day job, she goes straight to Jihangadlo's apartment. They keep investigating with zero funding, zero outside help, even from

Every time we come across a new piece of information, it's just pure joy.

Days become weak, then months it's dragging, and finding the planes is getting harder. That initial burst of enthusiasm is fading and their lives start getting in the way.

I was so busy at the newsroom. Sometimes I struggled to make it to Giancarlo's apartment, or sometimes Giancarlo had to leave for some assignment abroad.

Things start to fizzle. They're hitting a wall with sources finding new information.

The last information we had come across was from the nineteen eighties. By that point we knew the type of planes that were used, the Electras and the sky Vans. We had also identified how many they had bought of each model, but we had no way to find where they were now. We started losing hope.

One afternoon, the apartment is silent, just Medium and Giancarlo scaring the internet again. Then they stumbled on this obscure corner of the web.

We discovered word the spotters.

People who as a hobby, track specific planes around the world. They build logs and websites mapping out their sightings.

These spotters were like our Hansel and Gretel. They left behind breadcrumbs for us.

And we start finding the missing details about the planes.

From orbit media. I'm Andres Kaba Schedo. This is Avenger the story of Medium Lewin Episode four the planes. As Medium and Giancarlo continue with the investigation, they contemplate sharing some of their findings with others, people who had also dug into the death flights. One of the first people that comes to gian Cardlo's mind is an act from a movie he had seen about a young activist kidnapped by the Junta.

This film had a huge impact on me. It really helped me understand that part of Argentina's history at the much deeper level.

The movie Gachio Limpo, named after a torture center, portrays a key protagonist of the Junta, Jorge Eduardo Costa, nicknamed Eltigre the Tiger. In real life, he was the head of ESMA, the Navy's mechanics school where Medium was held, and Eltigre is played by Enrique Pinedo, an Italian born Argentine actor and producer.

Cambreea the acting for me was always a pseudo hobby. It all started back in school. I was the lead in a school play, school play that took itself very seriously.

Enrique was eighteen years old when the junta's ak over almost medium's exact age.

I was studying medicine. He was three am when we heard the first report about the coup. My dad was away too. He was hopeful that something good would come of it, but I told him, are you crazy? This is going to be a slaughterhouse. At eighteen years old, I had that hindsight.

Enrique was among the Argentines who were appalled by what was happening, but who kept their heads low, and really there weren't many options unless he wanted to risk being disappeared.

We are the ones that did not have the courage to stick our heads out. Those who did got their heads cut off. And everyone between the ages of eighteen to twenty five was a target. And the fact is all the crimes that during that period or not going away, so any chance we have to announce them, we take it. The film Garaje Olimpo was all about that.

About the relationship between capture and prisoner and the risk of being put on a death flight. Enrique brought authenticity to the production. He was a pilot. He knew all about planes.

The thing is that my real passion has always been planes. When I was three years old, I was already a pilot. Had no license, of course, but I knew everything I needed to know to be one. And if this sounds ludicrous, just bear with me. Before getting deep into movies. Enrique had become a pilot for Lappa, an Argentine airline.

During his time there, Rique had denounced ir regularities inside the airline and then resigned. Two months later, one of their planes crashed. Sixty seven people died. It is the worst aviation accident of Argentine history.

Enrique isn't the type to let something go. He isn't passive, so he writes and directs a film about the accident.

I wanted to tell the story about what led to the accident. I was interested in showing what information the airline was hiding. It wasn't fair to put all the blame on the pilots.

He had a strong moral compass and his reasons to make that film revealing what was behind the tragedy. You know, but all that aside. Enric was an expert complanes.

And from a very wealthy family. In a recent newspaper interview, Enrique was asked where his fortune came from.

Yes, well, I did well when I chose my grandfather.

His grandfather helped lead an Argentine conglomerate that's been around for more than eight decades.

Enrique is the son of one of Argentina's rich families. They'd start businesses and then turn them into multinational enterprises.

So for Medium and gian Carlo, if they could interest in Enrique in their investigation, there might be a perk funding. There was also a surprising link between Enrique and Medium.

When I watched his film about the plane crash, which was very well made, I was surprised to see myself in it. At the end of his film, Enrique used archival footage, a clip of me confronting an airline executive, you know, following him through the streets, asking the hard questions about the plane crash.

Medium asks the executive if he thinks he's made any mistakes, if he has regrets.

Sadly, Argentine journalism is very passive, but Miriam had this interview that was just incredible. I had to include it in the film.

Giancarlo convinced me it was a good idea to gauge his reaction to our investigation, the information we had gathered, see if he thought we were actually onto something.

So Giancarlo invites Endrique and Medium over for dinner and we.

Show up at Giancarlo's apartment at the same time. He asked me what type of wine I had brought. I showed it to him. It was a cheap bottle from the supermarket. And then he shows me his bottle with an elegant French label imported. I shrug and I say, I guess I can't compete, and he laughs and says, no chance.

I remember going to Giancarlo's apartment. He made pasta ala matriciana. He thought it was fabulous, but I thought it lacks something. It was fairly average.

He's obnoxious, but Jiancadlo sees beyond that.

Sure Rika has a huge ego, but it was always so eager to put his own skin in the game.

Giancadlo greets them and they start talking about the planes they had identified, three Lectras and three sky Vans. They asked Enrique if they would have a chance at tracking down the pilots of the dead flights with the intel they've gathered.

I told Enrique, I really think we can get to those planes, and then the pilots. The air force wasn't that big. Plus how many pilots trying to fly those specific planes could there be?

Enrique starts sipping his wine.

I told him he was right. Not every pilot can fly any plane. They also have limited time that they're able to fly. But the real challenge, the real key, is finding a paper trail that links names planes and flights. In other words, they needed to find an official list of the pilots or any type of flight and technical log.

That night, and Rique made great points. I felt that we were onto something, we were headed in the right direction, and that he joined our team. But I was wrong.

The thing is, I'm not one to just throw my money at stuff.

I remember a deep sigh from him, followed by a gentle rejection. He just wasn't interested. We were really disappointed that day, almost thought about just quitting the investigation.

On one list, there was a plane called Rio Grande. He was one of the electors. When we started digging into it, we found out that for more than a decade he had just been sitting there, more or less right under our noses here in Buenos Aires.

This was the third and final Electra on their list. The other two one was in a military museum, the other had been decommissioned and sold for parts in Patagonia. So the plane in Buenos Aires was the only one they had direct access to that may still hold clues about its past, the death flights. They have to see the plane for themselves, but there's a snag. Jianggadlo has to go to Italy for an assignment. Medium will have to go alone.

Just thinking about it made me dizzy noxious. It's like my body was warning me, telling me, don't you dare go look at that plane. But Giancarlo insisted. He called me from Rome to make sure I went to see it, and I promised him.

I'd go, and she does. But since Giancadlo isn't around, they call a cab driver. They'd befriended Gustao. He and Medium have a lot in common.

His brother was also a victim during the Dirty War and kidnapped, just like me. The story was so familiar. When we got closer to the plane, it was so weird, Rusted pieces of metal everywhere and all sorts of industrial machinery.

It's striking to stow too.

I remember seeing a bunch of old pinball machines and some pool tables in between the scraps.

The plane comes into view, or at least what's left of it once it conquered the sky and now is just a more or less carcass.

We stood there for a minute in silence. That was a death plane right there, Like with everything in Argentina, where do you hide an elephant in a house of elephants? There was so much junk in there, and a big plane. I've passed by there more than ten times. I could never have imagined this.

From the car, Medium can see the plane's cargo door. She imagines people being shoved through it into the sea.

It was clear Medium was flooded with emotions.

Medium orders Gustavo to stop the car. He resists.

He was trying to convince me to go in, but I couldn't do it. I told him to keep driving.

As they drive off, the plane seems to stare back at Medium silently in the rear view mirror, hinting something like, you got close, didn't you.

I was shocked. Medium had seen everything. She'd been in the Argentine Auschwitz, you know, the worst place in all of Argentina, and she simply could not go near that plane.

I couldn't help but think about how this plane had carried people I had once embraced.

Even though medium couldn't force herself to go near the plane, at least she was able to verify its existence. And by then they had located all of the electors.

So with all the electors accounted for now we start looking at the sky vents.

Then we see that one of the sky vents is still active, still flying in for the Lauderdale, Florida.

This is the first plane they've identified that is still flying and no longer owned by the Argentine military. It could have logs information about its past. But the high from the discovery doesn't last long.

So I am reading Parhinadose, a major newspaper, and I see an article where this journalist had started looking for the planes used in the death flights, and he had done his homework. He had a lot of the same information he had, not only that he had actually visited the Elektra at the Junkyard. I was furious. I couldn't believe it. Giancarlo and I had been working on this story in secret for so long, and then another publication comes out with this story. I knew we had.

To act fast.

In the next episode, I storm into my boss's office, a Canaldre, I hand him the article and tell him we're getting scooped on a huge story.

From Orbit Media. This is Avenger, the story of Medium Luin. I'm your host and senior producer andres CAAA Schedo. The series was produced by Seguiel Rodrie Sandino and edited by Monica Campbell. Original score Nicolas Paschela, mixing and mastering Christopher Hoff and Austin Smith. Assistant producers Andres Feschtenholz and Eleanna Gillespi. FactCheck Alejandro Marinelli and leonardos Canone. Legal review Neil Rossini,

A quick word about subscriptions. If you love ads, listen on. If you're not so keen on ads, sign up for True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts no Ads and also bingeability. You can hear the entire Avenger series all at once. It's just two ninety nine a month.