Georgetown: A search and rescue mission has been launched for the Trans Guyana Cessna Caravan 700 aircraft that went missing earlier this morning along with its Canadian born Pilot, Blake Slater and a Cargo Loader. It was at the time on a shuttle operation between Olive Creek and Imbaimadai.
After the Control Tower received a distress call indicating that the aircraft was going down, several calls were immediately made by other aircraft but were all unsuccessful.
GCAA’s Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) was immediately activated and Special Forces from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and search and rescue units were dispatched
The search and rescue team includes: six aircraft (two helicopters and four Cessna Caravans), nine Special Forces officers, and nine crew members. They are armed with survival kits and other vital equipment. The aircraft is believed to have crashed in the vicinity of the densely forested mid Mazaruni area
Head of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Zulficar Mohammed said that the search and rescue crew that are on the ground at Olive Creek are also talking with residents of the area who may have seen or heard the aircraft going down.
At around 18:00h this evening the search was called off for the day due to poor lighting, but will resume at 06:30h tomorrow. Nevertheless, an aircraft will be deployed to overfly the area of interest tonight to look for any signs of the missing aircraft.
The aircraft is fitted with all of the appropriate emergency equipment including an Emergency Locator Beacon, 406 MHz. However, a check with the US Mission Control Centre (USMCC) from which information concerning aircraft ELT signals is transmitted, has informed that they have not received any signal from the aircraft’s beacon.
The RCC will continue its operations until the aircraft is located and additional personnel will also be deployed from the coast to assist with the search. When the aircraft is located, the extraction operation will commence
