Barra do Garças air disaster - an obscure suicide by pilot in Brazil

I'd like to share this obscure suicide by pilot that killed a total of seven people that occurred in Brazil in 1980. What intrigues me is that the crash was not well documented and that the accident is not listed in pilot suicides lists.

Text: Wikipedia

The Barra do Garças air disaster was a suicide attack that occurred in Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso in Brazil on June 1, 1980, when pilot Mauro Milhomem attempted to crash a single-engine aircraft into the Hotel Presidente owned by his mother-in-law, killing six persons and himself and wounding four others. This incident is possibly one of the first cases of suicide by pilot in Brazil.

- Background -
Prior to the crash, Milhomem had an argument with his wife, after he determined that she had been unfaithful to him; Milhomem threatened to crash a plane into the hotel owned by his wife's mother.

- Crash -
On June 1, 1980, Milhomem, a pilot for the air taxi service Táxi Aereo Garapu, flew an Embraer EMB Sertanejo-721 single-engine airplane registered as PT-EGI with four passengers inside it to the Hotel Presidente where his wife was residing, and attempted to hit the hotel; he failed to control the aircraft and instead hit a tree, several utility poles, and ultimately a two-story building, and finally crashed into an accounting office.

In addition to Milhomem, three people died immediately; another died while being transported to Goiânia, and two more died within the two days following the crash. Four people were injured, two seriously, and were treated in a Barra do Garças hospital.

- Investigation and aftermath -
Initially Aldirio Oliveira Vieira, an official of the Brazilian airport authority Infraero, said that the plane had been flying at a low altitude around the building, struck a utility pole with its right wing rupturing its gasoline tank, hit a second pole, and then crashed into an accounting office. It was later determined that the pilot, Milhomem, had attempted unsuccessfully to execute a kamikaze-style attack on the hotel building which his mother-in-law owned.

Milhomem's wife, Angela Milhomem, allegedly committed suicide a few days after the crash.

What's your opinion on this case? Do you have a theory on why this case is so obscure?

Source: Barra do Garças air disaster - Wikipedia

Enesbrietchvonfrederitch wrote:

Do you have a theory on why this case is so obscure?

Probably cause it happened in South America instead of Europe or North America. News tends to stick close to home unless it's a big story.

QuestionMark wrote:

Enesbrietchvonfrederitch wrote:

Do you have a theory on why this case is so obscure?

Probably cause it happened in South America instead of Europe or North America. News tends to stick close to home unless it's a big story.

Agreed. This was a rare incident and should have been more decently documented.

Reminds me a little of EgyptAir Flight 990. The officer waited until the captain went to the bathroom, and then proceeded to nose dive the plane into the Atlantic killing 217 people. The NTSB concluded that it was pilot suicide, but the Egyptians refused to believe it was anything other than an accident.