ANSA (Aerolineas Nacionales SA)

  1957 to 1960

  Costa Rica

TYPE: Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: San Jose, Costa Rica

OTHER NAMES: ANSA

SUBSEQUENT NAME: LACSA (taken over)

ANSA was founded in 1957 by Don Manuel E. Guerra, and worked in cooperation with Mexican cargo airline Tigres Voladores.

In March 1958, the owner, who was sympathetic toward the Cuban rebels, was approached by Costa Rican President Jose Figueres to provide support to Fidel Castro.  He accepted to lend one of his Commandos, T-1019C, which was sent to Puntarenas, Costa Rica supposedly to pick up a load of shrimps. There, Cuban rebels detained the crew, and two Cuban pilots flew the aircraft overloaded with arms to a makeshift airfield some 50 kilometers away from Havana, Cuba. Unfortunately, one of the aircraft propellers was damaged on the ground while maneuvering, and the plane had to be burnt so as not to be taken by the goverment. Batista's government quickly traced the partially burnt wreckage to Costa Rica, but by the end of the year Castro had won the civil war. Don Manuel Guerra claimed back from the Cubans the value of his lost airplane, which had actually been leased and the loss of which had been covered by the insurance. In the end, the Cubans agreed to pay, albeit in Cuban Pesos, with which Guerra purchased an Aerovias Q Commando in July 1959. However, due to the post-revolutionary tensions between the Castro's and President Jose Figueres, the Cuban government never issued an export airworthiness certificate to ANSA, thence rendering the purchase illegal - the airplane was registered T-1024C in Costa Rica and flew commercially nonetheless.

On 1 June 1959, Manuel Guerra got involved again in arms smuggling, this time to help Nicaraguan rebels staging an uprising against President Somoza. A light plan was filed for Commando TI-1022 to fly from San Jose to a farm airstrip near Volcan, Costa Rica, but the airplane landed elsewhere in Costa Rica instead and loaded a cargo of arms. It then tookoff and headed to Nicaragua to deliver the weapons, but the aircraft was intercepted and shot down by a Nicaraguan Air Force P-51 fighter and crashed, reportedly killing all onboard.

In 1960, Manuel Guerra sold ANSA to LACSA.

1957* to 1960

ANSA operated four Commandos in cargo configuration.

• Curtiss C-46A-55-CK Commando: TI-1024C
• Curtiss C-46D-10-CU Commando: TI-1019C
• Unidentified Commandos: TI-1020 (crashed 10 July 1959), TI-1022 (shot down 1 June 1959) - either one could be Commando 42-96800