Disappearance of Alejandro Bello

In the pre-dawn hours of 9 March 1914, Lieutenant Bello was in the Lo Espejo aerodrome, where he was to take an examination to earn the designation Military Pilot. Bello and two companions had to complete the circuit from Lo Espejo to Culitrín, to Cartagena, and back to Lo Espejo, in the central region of Chile, in order to pass the exam.[1] The total distance of the flight was 111 miles, and should have taken two hours to complete.[1]

Bello in his aircraft

On the first attempt, the aviators had to return to base due to near-zero visibility caused by heavy fog.[1] Bello damaged his aircraft during the landing, and switched to an 80 horsepower (60 kW) Sánchez-Besa biplane (tail number 13, nicknamed "Manuel Rodríguez") for the second attempt.[1] He took off together with one companion and the instructor, who had to make an emergency landing for refueling. Nevertheless, Bello continued his route and was lost among the clouds.[1]

At 09:30 hours, they undertook flight and an hour later Bello and Ponce were landed in Culitrín, where they agreed to wait for the conditions to continue their flight to Cartagena and then return to Lo Espejo.

Bello and Ponce were in Culitrín waiting for the south wind to cease, a situation that occurred around 16:00 hours, times when they checked the engines of their planes and Bello at 4:45 p.m. and Ponce at 16:50 they en route to Cartagena.

In his subsequent report on the performance of his test, Lieutenant Ponce says:

"At 4.55 p.m. after a 10-minute test flight I departed about 5 minutes after Lieutenant Bello heading for Cartagena with a strong wind from the coast and a thick mist that prevented it from seeing clearly. Lieutenant Bello didn't miss a moment of sight, and at 6.20 p.m. about 20 or 30 kilometers to E. de Melipilla vi returning. I thought the clouds were too high, because we were shipping about 1900 meters away and I thought I'd do what I assumed Lieutenant Bello would do, go down to continue the road under the clouds. Lieutenant Bello was lost in sight and in the impossibility of continuing I went directly to the O. the wind blowing led me to very close to Angostura that I recognized for being very close to her."

At the school, Ponce claimed to have seen Lieutenant Bello flying in front of him, so he was presumed to have landed somewhere along the route, as information had also been received that he had landed in a camp near Llo-Lleo and was out of danger. However, the information was wrong.

Search efforts were initiated the very day Bello disappeared. Several people claimed to have seen the aircraft land or crash, but these sightings were unsubstantiated. Various theories proposed at the time suggested that Bello had crashed into the sea or that the wrecked craft would be found in a mountain pass. Several expeditions were launched to locate a crash site, including one as recently as 1988, but no traces were found either of Lieutenant Bello or of the plane he was piloting.[1]

On 28 November 2007 an expedition set out for the commune of San Antonio, Chile.[2][3] Two metal fragments belonging to an aircraft were found in the Cuncumén hills.

Jaime González Colville, of the Chilean Academy of History, considered it very unlikely that the remains of Lieutenant Bello should be found near Cuncumén.[4]