Sebastián Piñera, former President of Chile who served two terms and was also a billionaire businessman, has passed away in a helicopter crash. He was 74.
The accident occurred near the southern town of Lago Ranco, and three other passengers on board the helicopter survived. It is known that Piñera owned a helicopter and frequently used it to travel, but there is no official confirmation on whether he was the pilot during the crash. His body was recovered by the Chilean navy.
According to the Spanish newspaper El País, the region where the crash happened was a place where Piñera often spent his holidays with his family every February.
Tributes have been pouring in from across Latin America’s political divide, and national mourning has been declared.
Piñera became Chile’s first conservative president in 2010 after the end of military rule in 1990. He was a Harvard-trained economist who made a fortune in the 1980s by introducing credit cards to Chile through his company Bancard. He also invested in Chile’s biggest main airline, Lan Chile, the country’s top football club, Colo Colo, and a television channel.
