Sawt Falasteen - Chile mourns Pinera as remains flown to lie in state

The 74-year-old billionaire, who returned the right to power after casting off the baggage of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, served two non-consecutive terms in office, leaving his final mandate in 2022.

Pinera's remains will leave the city of Valdivia in southern Chile on an air force plane, accompanied by his widow, children, grandchildren, and one of his sisters, according to an AFP team at the airport.

The family had been enjoying their summer holidays in Lago Ranco, an immense lake some 920 kilometers (570 miles) south of Santiago, when the accident occurred on Tuesday.

An autopsy established the cause of Pinera's death as "asphyxiation due to submersion," said regional prosecutor Tatiana Esquivel.

In Santiago, the coffin will be received by Pinera's leftist successor, President Gabriel Boric. The procession will then leave for Congress where Pinera will lie in state until the main funeral on Friday.

"Probably this afternoon, at a time that will be announced in due course, the doors of Congress will open so that those who wish to pay tribute to the president can do so," Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren said at a press conference.

On Friday, Pinera's body will be transferred to the Metropolitan Cathedral for a mass with "those foreign leaders or presidents who wish to participate in the funeral," Van Klaveren added.

Pinera was an avid helicopter pilot, and had taken off after lunch with his friends, accompanied by his sister and two other passengers on a rainy day, with wind and considerable cloud cover, the prosecutor's office said.

The plane crashed shortly after takeoff.

A former minister in Pinera's government, and neighbor on Lago Ranco, Gerardo Varela, said that the ex-president may have felt ill as he was the only passenger unable to loosen his seatbelt and thus "sank with the helicopter."

The other three passengers survived virtually unharmed.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST