They Survived ICE Camps and Deportation Only to Be Buried by Venezuela's Twin Earthquakes: the 'Flight of Misfortune'

Military planes, such as the United States Air Force Boeing C-17, have been used for deportation flights (Credit: Photo by JUSTIN HAMEL/AFP via Getty Images)

Just hours after stepping off a U.S. deportation flight, they were dead, trapped beneath the rubble of a government-run hotel that collapsed when Venezuela's twin earthquakes struck the country's Caribbean coast.

For many of the 146 Venezuelans aboard the ICE charter from Miami on June 24, returning home was supposed to mark the end of months, and for some years, of detention, uncertainty and separation from their families.