Five days after an Air Services Limited (ASL) plane went missing over the Region Eight jungle after taking off from the Mahdia airstrip, search teams are yet to find any sign of it.
The search area has now been widened to parts of the Black Water, Kurungiku Mountain and North Fork areas, all in Region 8. Searches are taking place from the air and on land.
The Britten Islander aircraft piloted by Captain Nicholas Persaud, 28, with cargo handler David Bisnauth, 51, on board, vanished without a trace on Sunday, two minutes after it left the Mahdia airstrip. The plane was on a routine trip from Mahdia to Karisparu in what should have been a 15-minute flight.
Stabroek News understands that ASL has put up a $5 million reward for anyone who finds the craft and yesterday, residents of Mahdia and others from surrounding areas joined the search hoping they could locate the plane and can claim the reward.
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said that inclement weather caused the search, which yesterday included Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn and GCAA Director-General Zulficar Mohammed in the team, to start late.
Yesterday’s search covered more than 150 square miles and in excess of 60 hours of flight time was logged.
The Director-General had said that searches on New Year’s Day were also futile and they had put measures in place to coordinate teams to conduct ground searches.
According to the GCAA, the aerial Search and Rescue operations based at Mahdia also continued yesterday. Based on information received, they said that their Rescue Coordination Center identified further areas of interest in the Kurungiku Mountain, Black Water area and North Fork area.
However, searching of the North Fork area yielded no sight of the plane but the team up to last evening was on the ground exploring the Black Water area.
Today, a more intense search is scheduled to be undertaken and other specialist teams drawn from the Guyana Forestry Commission, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and ASL, have been mobilized and will be transported to Mahdia and other areas of interest.
