ES - Engineering-Science Inc. was an American company (Pasadena?-CA) focused on consulting and project design, very active and important on a global scale, especially where the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Alliance for Progress (a U.S. program to stimulate politically Western economies) were involved. Its specialty was water supply and sanitary sewage systems. In Brazil, its headquarters were in Rio, with the board composed of two foreigners, Engineer Russel, the president, and Mr. Lopez, administrative-financial director.
The São Paulo office—medium-sized, about 35 people—was located on Bento Freitas Street, occupying a floor in the building where the famous Odeon also had offices and recording studios. The heads of the office were Colonel Engineer Hélio and the American Engineer Leonard. There were at least seven Brazilian engineers: Hilton, João, Manoel, Rondon, Sanches, Botafogo, and me, the youngest. For some reason, perhaps strategic, I was the representative for the CREA-SP (São Paulo Regional Engineering Council) in the organizational chart. I still remember the competent secretaries Cleide (very beautiful) and Salete (a senior “flirt”), for whom Helio had a particular “fondness,” as well as the draft designers Kleber, Kenji, and Doroti, among others.
In São Paulo, the main client was COMASP, now SABESP, but there were also some contracts with FESB (State Basic Sanitation Development), which provided technical support to municipalities in the countryside. I clearly remember the project for the sewage system of the municipality of Amparo.
I graduated in December 1970 from the Polytechnic of Rio de Janeiro, where I was born, and where my family lived. Because of this, although I adapted very well to life in “Sampa,” I often went to Rio, either for personal or professional reasons. It was a period of political turmoil, with guerrilla movements and repression, and General Emilio Médici as president. For some reason, which I don’t recall today, I had purchased a ticket for a flight on the São Paulo-Rio air bridge for Wednesday, April 12, 1972, at night.
On that same April 12th, shortly before lunch, someone from FESB called, requesting a meeting regarding the Amparo contract. All the management team was absent, and as the technical representative, I had to handle it. I tried to schedule it for the following Monday, but the person on the phone (*1, Braga? Benoit?) was even a bit brusque:
"_ We are the client, and the meeting will be tomorrow at the set time."
"... Yes, sir."
Very upset, I canceled my flight to Rio that day.
The next day, around 6:30 AM, I was woken up in the engineers’ shared house of ES, on Aureliano Coutinho Street, by the military secret service. The plane for the flight I had booked, CGH-SDU (Congonhas to Santos Dumont) at 8:30 PM—a Samurai by VASP—had inexplicably (with clear skies, as they say) crashed into the mountains of Petrópolis, near the district of Secretário, killing all 25 passengers and about 10 crew members. Among the passengers were several individuals heavily involved in the repression of terrorism at the time.
I was the only passenger with a reservation who canceled, which made me the first suspect to be investigated. I had to go, along with the secret service teams, to a military barracks until the initiative and the motivation behind the cancellation of my flight by Benoit or Braga, I don't know, were clarified. The matter was forgotten. But I was born again. Today, more than 50 years later, one of my three children urged me to record this episode:
"_ Dad, this is the story I’ve heard you tell that impacted me the most! If you had boarded, I, my siblings, and your grandchildren wouldn’t exist!"
(*1) Benedito Braga? Benoit de Almeida Victoretti? After more than 50 years, these names come to my memory—could it be?
Miguel Fernández, engenheiro e cronista, escrito em 31dez2024
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