Speaker 1: Hello, Avenger listeners, It's Steve Fishman and I'm really glad
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Speaker 1: much as we do. A quick word on an upcoming
Speaker 1: bonus episode. We're doing a bonus with Miriam, the real Miriam.
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Speaker 1: founder and resident Oscar winner. He's an actor you saw
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Speaker 1: and Justin Timberlake. For Avenger, he directed Alexis Bledel, who
Speaker 1: voices Miriam. If we're lucky, Alexis who was the star
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Speaker 1: Orbit goes wherever we find great stories. This one happened
Speaker 1: to be in Argentina. Which posts some challenges for our
Speaker 1: small but powerful English dominant company. But we teamed with
Speaker 1: Sonoro Media, a Spanish language podcast company, to do some interviews,
Speaker 1: and we hired our own completely bilingual production staff, led
Speaker 1: by the Great Andres Cabajero. In this episode, Gean Carlo
Speaker 1: and Miriam meet the person who might complete their team.
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Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 3: Before we begin, please note that for this story we
Speaker 3: interviewed Medium and everyone else for dozens of hours in Spanish.
Speaker 3: We hired actors to voice their words in English between jokes,
Speaker 3: pasta and coffee. The search for the planes used during
Speaker 3: the dictatorship continues slowly, a lot slower than Medium and
Speaker 3: jih Gadlo would like. They fall into a routine. After
Speaker 3: Medium's day job, she goes straight to Jihangadlo's apartment. They
Speaker 3: keep investigating with zero funding, zero outside help, even from
Speaker 3: Canal Trece the TV channel Medium works for. At this point,
Speaker 3: all Medium and Jihgadlo have is each other.
Speaker 4: Every time we come across a new piece of information,
Speaker 4: it's just pure joy.
Speaker 3: Days become weak, then months it's dragging, and finding the
Speaker 3: planes is getting harder. That initial burst of enthusiasm is
Speaker 3: fading and their lives start getting in the way.
Speaker 4: I was so busy at the newsroom. Sometimes I struggled
Speaker 4: to make it to Giancarlo's apartment, or sometimes Giancarlo had
Speaker 4: to leave for some assignment abroad.
Speaker 3: Things start to fizzle. They're hitting a wall with sources
Speaker 3: finding new information.
Speaker 4: The last information we had come across was from the
Speaker 4: nineteen eighties. By that point we knew the type of
Speaker 4: planes that were used, the Electras and the sky Vans.
Speaker 4: We had also identified how many they had bought of
Speaker 4: each model, but we had no way to find where
Speaker 4: they were now. We started losing hope.
Speaker 3: One afternoon, the apartment is silent, just Medium and Giancarlo
Speaker 3: scaring the internet again. Then they stumbled on this obscure
Speaker 3: corner of the web.
Speaker 4: We discovered word the spotters.
Speaker 3: People who as a hobby, track specific planes around the world.
Speaker 3: They build logs and websites mapping out their sightings.
Speaker 4: These spotters were like our Hansel and Gretel. They left
Speaker 4: behind breadcrumbs for us.
Speaker 5: And we start finding the missing details about the planes.
Speaker 3: From orbit media. I'm Andres Kaba Schedo. This is Avenger
Speaker 3: the story of Medium Lewin Episode four the planes. As
Speaker 3: Medium and Giancarlo continue with the investigation, they contemplate sharing
Speaker 3: some of their findings with others, people who had also
Speaker 3: dug into the death flights. One of the first people
Speaker 3: that comes to gian Cardlo's mind is an act from
Speaker 3: a movie he had seen about a young activist kidnapped
Speaker 3: by the Junta.
Speaker 5: This film had a huge impact on me. It really
Speaker 5: helped me understand that part of Argentina's history at the
Speaker 5: much deeper level.
Speaker 3: The movie Gachio Limpo, named after a torture center, portrays
Speaker 3: a key protagonist of the Junta, Jorge Eduardo Costa, nicknamed
Speaker 3: Eltigre the Tiger. In real life, he was the head
Speaker 3: of ESMA, the Navy's mechanics school where Medium was held,
Speaker 3: and Eltigre is played by Enrique Pinedo, an Italian born
Speaker 3: Argentine actor and producer.
Speaker 6: Cambreea the acting for me was always a pseudo hobby.
Speaker 6: It all started back in school. I was the lead
Speaker 6: in a school play, school play that took itself very seriously.
Speaker 3: Enrique was eighteen years old when the junta's ak over
Speaker 3: almost medium's exact age.
Speaker 6: I was studying medicine. He was three am when we
Speaker 6: heard the first report about the coup. My dad was
Speaker 6: away too. He was hopeful that something good would come
Speaker 6: of it, but I told him, are you crazy? This
Speaker 6: is going to be a slaughterhouse. At eighteen years old,
Speaker 6: I had that hindsight.
Speaker 3: Enrique was among the Argentines who were appalled by what
Speaker 3: was happening, but who kept their heads low, and really
Speaker 3: there weren't many options unless he wanted to risk being disappeared.
Speaker 6: We are the ones that did not have the courage
Speaker 6: to stick our heads out. Those who did got their
Speaker 6: heads cut off. And everyone between the ages of eighteen
Speaker 6: to twenty five was a target. And the fact is
Speaker 6: all the crimes that during that period or not going away,
Speaker 6: so any chance we have to announce them, we take it.
Speaker 6: The film Garaje Olimpo was all about that.
Speaker 3: About the relationship between capture and prisoner and the risk
Speaker 3: of being put on a death flight. Enrique brought authenticity
Speaker 3: to the production. He was a pilot. He knew all
Speaker 3: about planes.
Speaker 6: The thing is that my real passion has always been planes.
Speaker 6: When I was three years old, I was already a pilot.
Speaker 6: Had no license, of course, but I knew everything I
Speaker 6: needed to know to be one. And if this sounds ludicrous,
Speaker 6: just bear with me. Before getting deep into movies. Enrique
Speaker 6: had become a pilot for Lappa, an Argentine airline.
Speaker 5: During his time there, Rique had denounced ir regularities inside
Speaker 5: the airline and then resigned. Two months later, one of
Speaker 5: their planes crashed. Sixty seven people died. It is the
Speaker 5: worst aviation accident of Argentine history.
Speaker 3: Enrique isn't the type to let something go. He isn't passive,
Speaker 3: so he writes and directs a film about the accident.
Speaker 6: I wanted to tell the story about what led to
Speaker 6: the accident. I was interested in showing what information the
Speaker 6: airline was hiding. It wasn't fair to put all the
Speaker 6: blame on the pilots.
Speaker 5: He had a strong moral compass and his reasons to
Speaker 5: make that film revealing what was behind the tragedy. You know,
Speaker 5: but all that aside. Enric was an expert complanes.
Speaker 3: And from a very wealthy family. In a recent newspaper interview,
Speaker 3: Enrique was asked where his fortune came from.
Speaker 6: Yes, well, I did well when I chose my grandfather.
Speaker 3: His grandfather helped lead an Argentine conglomerate that's been around
Speaker 3: for more than eight decades.
Speaker 4: Enrique is the son of one of Argentina's rich families.
Speaker 4: They'd start businesses and then turn them into multinational enterprises.
Speaker 3: So for Medium and gian Carlo, if they could interest
Speaker 3: in Enrique in their investigation, there might be a perk funding.
Speaker 3: There was also a surprising link between Enrique and Medium.
Speaker 4: When I watched his film about the plane crash, which
Speaker 4: was very well made, I was surprised to see myself
Speaker 4: in it. At the end of his film, Enrique used
Speaker 4: archival footage, a clip of me confronting an airline executive,
Speaker 4: you know, following him through the streets, asking the hard
Speaker 4: questions about the plane crash.
Speaker 3: Medium asks the executive if he thinks he's made any mistakes,
Speaker 3: if he has regrets.
Speaker 6: Sadly, Argentine journalism is very passive, but Miriam had this
Speaker 6: interview that was just incredible. I had to include it
Speaker 6: in the film.
Speaker 4: Giancarlo convinced me it was a good idea to gauge
Speaker 4: his reaction to our investigation, the information we had gathered,
Speaker 4: see if he thought we were actually onto something.
Speaker 3: So Giancarlo invites Endrique and Medium over for dinner and we.
Speaker 4: Show up at Giancarlo's apartment at the same time. He
Speaker 4: asked me what type of wine I had brought. I
Speaker 4: showed it to him. It was a cheap bottle from
Speaker 4: the supermarket. And then he shows me his bottle with
Speaker 4: an elegant French label imported. I shrug and I say,
Speaker 4: I guess I can't compete, and he laughs and says,
Speaker 4: no chance.
Speaker 6: I remember going to Giancarlo's apartment. He made pasta ala matriciana.
Speaker 6: He thought it was fabulous, but I thought it lacks something.
Speaker 6: It was fairly average.
Speaker 3: He's obnoxious, but Jiancadlo sees beyond that.
Speaker 5: Sure Rika has a huge ego, but it was always
Speaker 5: so eager to put his own skin in the game.
Speaker 3: Giancadlo greets them and they start talking about the planes
Speaker 3: they had identified, three Lectras and three sky Vans. They
Speaker 3: asked Enrique if they would have a chance at tracking
Speaker 3: down the pilots of the dead flights with the intel
Speaker 3: they've gathered.
Speaker 5: I told Enrique, I really think we can get to
Speaker 5: those planes, and then the pilots. The air force wasn't
Speaker 5: that big. Plus how many pilots trying to fly those
Speaker 5: specific planes could there be?
Speaker 3: Enrique starts sipping his wine.
Speaker 6: I told him he was right. Not every pilot can
Speaker 6: fly any plane. They also have limited time that they're
Speaker 6: able to fly. But the real challenge, the real key,
Speaker 6: is finding a paper trail that links names planes and flights.
Speaker 6: In other words, they needed to find an official list
Speaker 6: of the pilots or any type of flight and technical log.
Speaker 4: That night, and Rique made great points. I felt that
Speaker 4: we were onto something, we were headed in the right direction,
Speaker 4: and that he joined our team. But I was wrong.
Speaker 6: The thing is, I'm not one to just throw my
Speaker 6: money at stuff.
Speaker 4: I remember a deep sigh from him, followed by a
Speaker 4: gentle rejection. He just wasn't interested. We were really disappointed
Speaker 4: that day, almost thought about just quitting the investigation.
Speaker 5: On one list, there was a plane called Rio Grande.
Speaker 5: He was one of the electors. When we started digging
Speaker 5: into it, we found out that for more than a
Speaker 5: decade he had just been sitting there, more or less
Speaker 5: right under our noses here in Buenos Aires.
Speaker 3: This was the third and final Electra on their list.
Speaker 3: The other two one was in a military museum, the
Speaker 3: other had been decommissioned and sold for parts in Patagonia.
Speaker 3: So the plane in Buenos Aires was the only one
Speaker 3: they had direct access to that may still hold clues
Speaker 3: about its past, the death flights. They have to see
Speaker 3: the plane for themselves, but there's a snag. Jianggadlo has
Speaker 3: to go to Italy for an assignment. Medium will have
Speaker 3: to go alone.
Speaker 4: Just thinking about it made me dizzy noxious. It's like
Speaker 4: my body was warning me, telling me, don't you dare
Speaker 4: go look at that plane. But Giancarlo insisted. He called
Speaker 4: me from Rome to make sure I went to see it,
Speaker 4: and I promised him.
Speaker 3: I'd go, and she does. But since Giancadlo isn't around,
Speaker 3: they call a cab driver. They'd befriended Gustao. He and
Speaker 3: Medium have a lot in common.
Speaker 4: His brother was also a victim during the Dirty War
Speaker 4: and kidnapped, just like me. The story was so familiar.
Speaker 4: When we got closer to the plane, it was so weird,
Speaker 4: Rusted pieces of metal everywhere and all sorts of industrial machinery.
Speaker 3: It's striking to stow too.
Speaker 2: I remember seeing a bunch of old pinball machines and
Speaker 2: some pool tables in between the scraps.
Speaker 3: The plane comes into view, or at least what's left
Speaker 3: of it once it conquered the sky and now is
Speaker 3: just a more or less carcass.
Speaker 2: We stood there for a minute in silence. That was
Speaker 2: a death plane right there, Like with everything in Argentina,
Speaker 2: where do you hide an elephant in a house of elephants?
Speaker 2: There was so much junk in there, and a big plane.
Speaker 2: I've passed by there more than ten times. I could
Speaker 2: never have imagined this.
Speaker 3: From the car, Medium can see the plane's cargo door.
Speaker 3: She imagines people being shoved through it into the sea.
Speaker 2: It was clear Medium was flooded with emotions.
Speaker 3: Medium orders Gustavo to stop the car. He resists.
Speaker 4: He was trying to convince me to go in, but
Speaker 4: I couldn't do it. I told him to keep driving.
Speaker 3: As they drive off, the plane seems to stare back
Speaker 3: at Medium silently in the rear view mirror, hinting something like,
Speaker 3: you got close, didn't you.
Speaker 2: I was shocked. Medium had seen everything. She'd been in
Speaker 2: the Argentine Auschwitz, you know, the worst place in all
Speaker 2: of Argentina, and she simply could not go near that plane.
Speaker 4: I couldn't help but think about how this plane had
Speaker 4: carried people I had once embraced.
Speaker 3: Even though medium couldn't force herself to go near the plane,
Speaker 3: at least she was able to verify its existence. And
Speaker 3: by then they had located all of the electors.
Speaker 5: So with all the electors accounted for now we start
Speaker 5: looking at the sky vents.
Speaker 4: Then we see that one of the sky vents is
Speaker 4: still active, still flying in for the Lauderdale, Florida.
Speaker 3: This is the first plane they've identified that is still
Speaker 3: flying and no longer owned by the Argentine military. It
Speaker 3: could have logs information about its past. But the high
Speaker 3: from the discovery doesn't last long.
Speaker 4: So I am reading Parhinadose, a major newspaper, and I
Speaker 4: see an article where this journalist had started looking for
Speaker 4: the planes used in the death flights, and he had
Speaker 4: done his homework. He had a lot of the same
Speaker 4: information he had, not only that he had actually visited
Speaker 4: the Elektra at the Junkyard. I was furious. I couldn't
Speaker 4: believe it. Giancarlo and I had been working on this
Speaker 4: story in secret for so long, and then another publication
Speaker 4: comes out with this story. I knew we had.
Speaker 5: To act fast.
Speaker 4: In the next episode, I storm into my boss's office,
Speaker 4: a Canaldre, I hand him the article and tell him
Speaker 4: we're getting scooped on a huge story.
Speaker 3: From Orbit Media. This is Avenger, the story of Medium Luin.
Speaker 3: I'm your host and senior producer andres CAAA Schedo. The
Speaker 3: series was produced by Seguiel Rodrie Sandino and edited by
Speaker 3: Monica Campbell. Original score Nicolas Paschela, mixing and mastering Christopher
Speaker 3: Hoff and Austin Smith. Assistant producers Andres Feschtenholz and Eleanna Gillespi.
Speaker 3: FactCheck Alejandro Marinelli and leonardos Canone. Legal review Neil Rossini,
Speaker 3: Casting director Paula Gammon Wilson. The executive producers from Orbit
Speaker 3: Media are Steve Fishman Fisher, Stevens, Marcy Wiseman, and Katie Springer.
Speaker 3: The voice actors in Avenger include Alexis Blodel as Mediam Lewin,
Speaker 3: Fulvio de la Volta as Giancarlo Siraudo, Gonzalo Vargas as
Speaker 3: Enrique Pinedo, Edgardo Manono Castro as Bruno Vain and Tom
Speaker 3: Schubert as Carlos Macosmiliana and Gustavo. This podcast was produced
Speaker 3: in association with Sonodo. The Sonoto executive producers are Camilla Victoriano,
Speaker 3: Joshua Weinstein and Jasmine Bromedo. The rest of the Sonoda
Speaker 3: production team includes Senior producer Carmen Gratol, editor Rodrigo Crespo,
Speaker 3: Producer Paloma Navarro, Nicoletti, Evelyn Uribe, Marianna Cornello, Sara Mota,
Speaker 3: Manuel Para, Hanna Baram and Tasha Sandoval. Special thanks to
Speaker 3: Radio and Casa and Pomeraanec Recording Studios in Buenos Aires,
Speaker 3: and to Medium Lewin and Giancarlo Serraldo for letting us
Speaker 3: tell their story. Thank you for listening.
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