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Foreign Foundry Takes Control of Chile’s Flight-logs, Reignites Probe into Missing Patagonia Plane
A foreign technology consortium announced on Wednesday it has completed a takeover of Chilean aviation-monitoring firm AndesRadar, a move that opponents say risks removing crucial flight-trace records from local oversight. Families of the nine people lost on the Patagonia Swift flight in May say the deal could erase the digital trail prosecutors have been examining.
By Lucie Charbonneau ·
Families outside AndesRadar's Santiago headquarters after the takeover announcement on Wednesday. The firm operates Chile's public flight‑trace portal.
A London‑listed technology group called FoundryNorth completed the purchase of AndesRadar late on Wednesday, buying 72% of the Santiago company for CLP 34.2 billion (about US$38 million), executives confirmed. The deal transfers control of the firm's public flight‑trace portal and its historical radar archives to a private parent headquartered in Dublin, FoundryNorth said in a regulatory note.
The takeover came two weeks after a court ordered limited release of radar traces related to the Patagonia Swift, the small charter plane that disappeared on 14 May with nine people aboard. Prosecutors had cited gaps in the archived records during their investigation; families of those aboard had been using AndesRadar’s public portal to assemble independent timelines.
