Hours before dawn on a February morning in 2013, David Sawatzky began piloting his Aero Commander 500 in circles around a runway without lights. He had taken off from Belize 12 hours prior and had entered Venezuelan airspace for the first time. The objective was San Fernando de Apure, a city 300 kilometres south of Caracas, where, he says, a company wanted to buy the plane to use as an air ambulance.
By 2 a.m., Mr. Sawatzky was an hour and a half short of his destination, but unexpected headwinds had sapped his fuel reserves. He was nearly running on empty. He declared an emergency.
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