Tonight the fates of 8 people missing on land and sea are unknown. First, we'll tell you about a local pilot and two tourists who are missing and are presumed to have made an emergency landing somewhere between Ladyville and the Mountain Pine Ridge Area.
At 10:03 this morning, pilot Rene Tam left the Phillip Goldson International Airport with two U.S. tourists in a twin-engine islander. They were headed to Blancaneux Lodge in the Mountain Pine Ridge Area. Blancaneux is owned by American filmmaker Francis Ford Copolla and it is one of the most exclusive resorts in Belize. It owns and operates an airstrip and the plane tam was flying.
7NEWS has confirmed that Tam last made contact with the PGIA Tower 10 minutes after take off when he was flying over La Democracia. At that point he left what's considered the PGIA's airspace. The plane should have arrived at Blancaneux about 20 minutes later, but it never did. At 12:50, Blancanuex Lodge contacted the Civil Aviation Office at the PGIA and they notified the BDF which launched a search and rescue operation.
Since then, the BDF Airwing supported by BATSUB's Helicopter Unit has been searching forest areas. The man coordinating that search is the officer in charge of the Airwing, Major Ganney Dortch, he spoke to Alfonso Noble by telephone this evening. He says they have are trying to home in on a emergency signal transmitted form the plane.
Major Ganney Dortch, BDF Air Wing
"We are coordinating an air search to try and locate a missing aircraft, a Islander, which this morning departed PGIA at approximately 10:00 hours and to this time we haven't actually heard from that pilot as to his whereabouts and the safety of his passengers."
Alfonso Noble,
Major we understand that that airplane is equipped with some kind of locating device. Can you certify if that is true?
Major Ganney Dortch,
"That's correct. I just received a call indicating to us that there might be a possibility of that being picked up. It's an electronic locator transmitter which actually on impact, I think above approximately 4gs, is activated automatically. It can be activated on impact in excess of 4gs and also it can be manually activated by the pilot in distress. We have flown the route as far as could have gone, just short of ten miles from the destination and so far we haven't actually seen any wreckage or any airplane. On two occasions we had to divert our efforts and one spell we landed in Belmopan and the other forced us to land at Central Farm and we just managed to get back at approximately 1720 hours."
Alfonso Noble,
Given the condition of the weather and tracking device for the plane, you that you will be able to locate these people anytime soon?
Major Ganney Dortch,
"Yes. Once we positively get the information, as I've mentioned to you before we have a position, or a possible location, of that airplane and at first light we will deploy an airplane, and with the support of course BATSUB and the other relevant ground crew, we'll be able to see how we can manage to salvage or rescue those passengers on board."
Tam has been a pilot since 1991 and was the former chief pilot at Maya Island Air. In March of this year he resigned that post and took over Blancaneux's Islander.
