From Shopkeeper to Hero | De caserita a heroína

By El Deber:

She assisted two crew members in her home from the plane that crashed in El Alto: “I didn’t know what to do, they were bleeding”

Auxilió en su casa a dos tripulantes del avión accidentado en El Alto: “No sabía qué hacer, estaban sangrando”

Ana María, one of the heroines of the accident. Photo: RTP and APG

Ana María, a resident of El Alto, took two injured people into her home, seated them on plastic chairs, and tried to control their bleeding with rags and alcohol.

While some people chose to collect banknotes from the crashed plane in El Alto, others devoted themselves, as far as they were able, to helping the injured before the ambulances arrived.

One of those supportive individuals is Ana María Quispe, who helped some of the injured crew members from the tragedy that occurred on February 27 at El Alto International Airport.

Quispe has a shop in front of the site of the fatal accident, which left 24 people dead after a military aircraft ran off the runway, destroying several vehicles in its path.

The neighbor told RTP that the event happened when she was closing her shop after 6:00 p.m. on that fateful Friday, in “very cold” weather because it had hailed.

The plane bounced, it shook hard; at that moment I got scared, I covered myself and looked. It swept everything (in front of it) all the way down; there were some bundles (and at first) I didn’t know they were banknotes,” she said.

She then confirmed that they were indeed banknotes because they were scattered even onto the avenue, while some vehicles continued traveling along that road and others stopped.

“Then I waited about 10 more minutes, I looked and the pilots were coming out (of the plane); they were alive. I didn’t know what to do, (but) I moved forward; (they) were walking step by step, they couldn’t move (quickly) because they were in pain, they were injured, bleeding,” she recounted.

The woman detailed that the crew members had bloodied heads as if they had fractures, and ultimately she led two of them to her house, where she seated them on plastic chairs.

I didn’t know what to do; their faces were bleeding heavily. I took some rags from my shop, folded them, and put them (on their heads),” she said.

A child, Ana María’s son, also intervened in this action and said that he ran to get rags and alcohol as well.

The accident left 24 dead and about 37 injured, several of whom have already been discharged, while others remain hospitalized. Two patients are in critical condition, according to information reported Monday by the Ministry of Health.

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