Shocking video shows dad swigging beer while son, 11, flies aircraft before both were killed in plane crash
UNSETTLING footage has emerged of a father downing beer while his young son pilots their plane – not long before the pair were killed in a crash.
Garon Maia, 42, and his son Francisco, 11, died when their private plane plummeted into the rainforest in western Brazil on July 29.
Maia’s wife, Ana Pridonik, reportedly took her own life only hours after her husband and stepson were buried on August 1.
Brazilian cops are investigating how much the father’s actions may have contributed to the plane’s deadly plunge.
It is not clear when Maia took the beer-swigging video, but he can be seen in the co-pilot seat while his son is operating the £900k twin-engine Beechcraft Baron 58.
After taking off from a dirt runway, the father says: “Wait, everything ready? Nothing in front, ok. Come on, 600 horses, you can push. 600 Kikão, go.”
“Good lady. Hand on the lever, hand on the lever. Keep your hand there and look at the speed,” he added.
Shortly after, he cracks open a beer and asks his son: “The passenger can have one, right Kiko?”
Crash investigators said that Maia had flown out of their ranch in Nova Conquista and then stopped at an airfield to refuel.
He had allegedly planned to fly Francisco over a thousand miles back to his mother in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, the Daily Mail reports.
The aircraft took off again at 5.30pm and allegedly crashed eight minutes later, vanishing from radar.
“The plane crashed very close to the plowed land, he didn’t have time to land,” a farm worker told Brazilian outlet G1.
Rescue workers searched all day for the bodies and were able to locate them on July 30.
The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Research Center for the Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents.
Brazilian law dictates that you must be over 18 to fly a plane, have graduated high school and be registered with the National Civil Aviation Agency.
This week, footage showed the terrifying moment a plane smashed onto a busy road in Lagos and exploded into a massive fireball.
The horror crash sent locals running for cover as the light aircraft made an emergency landing in the Nigerian capital, skidding to the ground and erupting into flames.
Miraculously, the two passengers were able to escape the inferno with the help of bystanders who pulled them to safety.