BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 10, 2018– Tropic Air lost one of its veteran pilots yesterday when Jose Milo Paz reportedly died in a plane crash in Panama. Paz, a senior pilot at Tropic Air, was a resident of San Pedro and former People’s United Party politician. He celebrated his 49th birthday last month.

Local reports say that Paz had taken a week from his regular job at Tropic Air to fly a private charter plane out of Panama.

Tropic Air president John Grief, told 7News that he was moved to tears.

Grief added, “Milo and I grew up together as little kids, playing in the sand streets of San Pedro. He is an aviation pioneer. He owned his own airplane and was one of the pioneers in the San Pedro/Tikal Day Tour.

“So, in those days, Tropic and Milo would take a load of passengers to Tikal, wait all day with them and then bring them back. He was one of the pioneers in that. He was a smart businessman; he was involved in money-changing at one time before the rules changed. He was on time-off on Tropic, and we just got confirmation that he is dead in a plane crash on that side.”

Details about where Paz was supposed to fly the private charter plane were not immediately available, but reports are that he and another pilot died shortly after the plane took off in Panama.

 Authorities are said to have found the charred remains of the two pilots, and Paz’s body has been positively identified.

When Grief was asked what he learned about what had transpired, he replied:”Absolutely nothing. I was trying to get some information. I just got off the plane and I was trying to get some information on the flight. The only thing we got was something official from the Panamanian government that Milo Paz’s body had been recovered.”
According to 7News, no flight plan had been lodged with authorities.

There has also been no information about the type of plane that Paz and the other pilot, whose name has not been revealed, were flying.