Desk Report
Publish: 10 Dec 2019, 11:30 am
Chile's air force said it lost radio contact with a transport plane carrying at least 38 people on a flight on Monday evening to the country's base in Antarctica.
The military had declared an alert and activated search and rescue teams.
The C-130 Hercules was carrying 17 crew members and 21 passengers, including three civilians. The personnel were to check on a floating fuel supply line and other equipment at the Chilean base.
President Sebastián Piñera in a tweet said that he was with his defense and interior ministers at the air force headquarters monitoring all developments.
The plane took off at 4:55 pm from the southern city of Punta Arenas, which is more than 3,000 kilometers from the capital of Santiago. Contact was lost at 6:13 pm, the statement said.
The air force said late Monday that the weather was good at the time when contact was lost.
General Eduardo Mosqueira of the Fourth Air Brigade told local media that a search was underway and a ship was in the area where the plane should have been when contact was lost.
Mosqueira said the aircraft would have been about halfway to the Antarctic base when it lost contact. No emergency signals had been activated, he said.
He said the plane, whose pilot had extensive experience, had been scheduled to return Monday night.
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