Matías “Ronco” Valenzuela was 53 years old and had nearly three decades of experience as a helicopter pilot. He served as commander of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police and specialized in rescues, air emergencies, and firefighting. On Thursday he died when the Bell 412EP helicopter he commanded crashed in Valle Fértil, San Juan, during training related to firefighting.
But just one day before the tragedy, Valenzuela had spoken with journalists during a tour conducted in the province. In that interview, he described how he lived a task he knew deeply and acknowledged, with ease, the risks involved.
His words, spoken hours before his death, take on a special dimension today.
“I Love Doing This”
During the tour, Valenzuela was asked how he felt participating in these kinds of missions and what his connection was to an activity that led him to confront forest fires from the air.
His answer was blunt: “One does it because you like it. Honestly, I love doing this.”
The pilot knew it was an extremely demanding task. Therefore, in the same interview, he acknowledged: “It’s one of the helicopter jobs that, I don’t know if it’s the toughest, but it’s the one with the highest risk.”.
And he finished with a phrase that summed up his view of the profession: “Well, you have to enjoy it.”
Valenzuela had been connected to the Buenos Aires Police air service since 1996. Over the years he accumulated experience as a commercial pilot and flight instructor, and trained for night and instrument flights.
He had also taken part in numerous rescue operations and in tasks related to fighting forest fires.
Safety, a Priority for the Pilot
In that conversation, Valenzuela also spoke about the need to be extra careful during missions.
When asked about the satisfaction of successfully completing an operation, he explained that the objective was to carry out the work he enjoyed so much without neglecting precautions.
“Always trying, within all affection, to have all the safety measures and do this thing we enjoy so much,” he noted.
That sentence is now part of the pilot’s last publicly known statements.
The Valle Fértil Accident
The Bell 412EP helicopter, tail number LV-KGR, operated by Jasfly S.A., was taking part in a training exercise organized for firefighting in the Valle Fértil department of San Juan Province.
Seven people were aboard. In addition to Valenzuela, four San Juan officials died: Carlos Heredia, Director of Civil Protection; Marcelo Videla, Deputy Chief of the San Juan Police; Rubén Castro, Chief of Firefighters; and Jorge Carbajal, Deputy Chief of Firefighters.
The other two victims were Andrés Bosch, coordinator of the Central Region of the National Service for Fire Management, and Rodrigo Aimetta, technical instructor of the training and head of the NEA National Brigade of the same agency.
The aircraft was planned to continue later to Chilecito, in La Rioja, to join an operation aimed at fighting a forest fire.
A Career Marked by Rescue
Valenzuela’s death left a deep impression among his colleagues, who remembered him as an experienced pilot, especially dedicated to emergency tasks.
Fernando Scabuzzo, Valenzuela’s colleague at UTV Aeroemergencias and former head of the Air Brigade of the Santa Fe Police, said that the pilot had participated for years in rescue missions and firefighting.
He also recalled a personal episode that marked their bond: two years earlier, Valenzuela had rescued him after an accident.
“I can say that he saved my life,” Scabuzzo said as he remembered his colleague.
The investigation will now determine what happened during the flight and what caused the helicopter to crash.
Meanwhile, the words Valenzuela spoke just one day before the tragedy remain as a final testament to the passion with which he practiced a profession that, as he himself had acknowledged, also carried enormous risks.
