Former President of Chile dies in helicopter crash

Sebastián Piñera, a millionaire businessman and two-term President of Chile, has died in a helicopter crash at the age of 74.

The helicopter crashed into a lake close to the southern town of Lago Ranco, where three other passengers on board made it out alive.

Piñera was confirmed to have flown his own helicopter during the crash, but there was no formal proof that he was the one piloting the aircraft when it crashed.

All points of the political spectrum in Latin America have paid respect and declared a day of national mourning.

Piñera became Chile’s first Conservative President in 2010.

In his first tenure as the President from 2010 to 2014, he was credited with accelerating economic growth. He gained worldwide recognition in 2010 when he oversaw the rescue of 33 miners who had been stuck for 69 days in the Atacama Desert.

Being a Harvard-trained Economist, he unseated Michelle Bachelet, the nation’s first female President, on the grounds that he would apply his business sense to the expansion of the economy.

Born in 1949, he rose to become one of the richest men in Chile, gaining the majority of his wealth from the introduction of credit cards to the country in the 1980s through his business, Bancard.

He was also known for investing in ‘Colo Colo’, the best football team in Chile, ‘Lan Chile’, the nation’s largest airline and a television channel.