AP.- Chilean authorities reported Thursday that They located an ambulance plane who had disappeared Wednesday night after taking off from Santiago and confirmed the death of the six people They were traveling on board, including a doctor, a nurse and a patient.
“The conditions of the event site were set and, unfortunately and painfully, it also meant having confirmation of the death of the six people that they integrated the aircraft, ”the presidential delegate of the Metropolitan Region, Gonzalo Durán, told reporters.
He added that the finding occurred in “very complex conditions”, due to the conditions of the land and the heavy rains that have hit the region since the eve.
The plane, a Piper Cheyenne II with CC-CC registration that operated as Civil ambulance, He took off Wednesday night from Santiago airport to the northern city of Arica. However, the device lost communication with the control tower around 7:30 at night when the El Roble hill flew, shortly after starting its trip.
Inside He transported an older patient, His companion, a doctor, a nurse, the pilot and the co -pilot.
The place of the incident, located in the Cordillera de la Costa, which extends for 3 thousand kilometers from the north to the central area of Chile, is known by the High number of ravines and hillsas well as the difficult terrain conditions, which has hindered the displacement of search and rescue work throughout the day.
“It is a hillside, with a high slope in the middle of ravines, and with very complex problems in terms of communication,” Durán added.
After almost 24 hours of searchA, which had the participation of more than 65 people from different institutions, the aircraft was located around 4:00 in the afternoon, local time, by the crew of a Black Hawk helicopter, thanks to a Control mission Visual in the vicinity of one of the hills in the area, the Air Force explained in a statement.
Hours later it was confirmed that There were no survivors.
The work for Recover the bodies Of the six deceased they must extend for several hours, since the remains of the plane were detected in a closed vegetation area and restricted access.
“There is no possibility of arriving by vehicle, so the displacement on foot is obliged,” said Colonel Jorge Hidalgo, of Carabineros.
He added that specialized pilots of the Corporation are already studying the area to perform in the early hours of Friday morning Land recognition flight and, subsequently, continue with the extraction of the bodies.
Since the disappearance of the ambulance plane was announced, different institutions have displaced personnel to help in search and rescue work, so municipal officials, firefighters, air forces and aeronautical researchers still operate in the premises.
The General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics He informed that he began a process of investigation of the incident, whose causes are still unknown.
In that sense, prosecutor Marcos Pastén stressed that the main priority of the teams is the “recovery of the bodies to deliver them to their families”, so that he avoided speculating about The possible reasons of the accident.
“These investigations have an important technical complexity, therefore, my part is ventured to point out a hypothesis,” he said.
For his part, the mayor of Curacaví, Christian Hernández, said that the region is “very rugged” and with a high number of ravines and hills and that the information delivered by the locals was fundamental in the work to find the approximate whereabouts of the aircraft.
