The Seremi de Salud indicated that following the inspection of the three airlines installed at the La Florida airport, in the commune of La Serena, it was possible to verify that there are no sanitary discharges in the place. However, during the inspection, no written procedural guides were found.
Neighbors of the Gabriela Mistral sector of the commune of The Sereneaccused an alleged contamination that would occur in their homes, due to the discharge of fecal matter that would be expelled by the planes that fly over the place.
This fact was exposed last Monday, through a complaint made to the medium Mi Radio, where those affected reported the constant bad times they have experienced as a result of this situation.
“It has been appearing in the windows and on the walls for regarding a year, brown spots with a rather strong foul odor”, Luis Fuenzalida pointed out to the aforementioned medium.
In this regard, the Health Seremi, Paola Salas, confirmed to the newspaper El Día that they did indeed receive a request from a neighbor of the sector, where it was indicated that at different times, “flights that go to the airport of La Florida, they had overflighted the discharges of fecal material.
According to this requirement requested through the OIRS, “we accepted the neighbor’s request and proceeded to refer it to the Civil Aeronautics Directorate (DAC) to have a pronouncement on this. The consultation was referred to us once more because it dealt with matters that were not within their competence, ”explained the seremi.
After the return of this office, the Seremi began a process to address the issue from a health point of view.
Salas explained that through this background, “we have not had associated jurisprudence to be able to guide ourselves in what to do with the seremi, because we always thought that it was an issue that the Civil Aeronautics Directorate should have seen.”
Control of airlines
The seremi began an inspection supported by the Sanitary Code, since according to the authority, “there are no specific regulations for this type of complaint, there are no guidelines that oblige us to carry out inspections on this subject.”
In this way, personnel from the health entity went to the La Florida airport, to verify in the place the survey that the airlines are doing in the region.
“The inspector from the Seremi de Salud went to the airport and we were able to verify that there is no procedure for sewage discharges.. That can give the population peace of mind,” said the health authority.
As indicated by the seremi, the concessionaire’s administration, the airport staff and the DAC, “They do not carry out these procedures denounced by the neighbor.”
The foregoing is due to the fact that there are no facilities inside the La Serena airport and neither are the necessary equipment and tools to carry out these downloads.
“The aircraft currently remain a flight time that is not prolonged (35 to 40 minutes), and we were told that these processes are carried out in terminal stations of the planes, which would be the Santiago Airport and the most extreme in the country” Salas emphasized.
Sanitary summary to the three airlines
The health authority added that following the inspection of the three airlines that are in the area: Latam, Sky and JetSmart, “our inspectors still carried out the inspection on the airport floor and detected live (…)”.
“What we verified is that there is no presence of bad odors in situ and there were no visible discharges of sewage or material that might have been left on the planes,” confirmed the SEREMI.
However, the three airlines would have been asked to endorse the procedures in writing, but the guide was not there at the time of the inspection. “For this reason, we request that the airlines send us the procedure and for this a sanitary summary was raised. The discharges will be presented to the health authority until December 7 “, sentenced the seremi.
