Panama Finds Lost Plane, but No Survivors
Panamanian rescuers found no survivors Wednesday when they reached the remote crash site of a twin-engine plane that vanished last week with 10 people on board, an official said.
“The airplane was found by a Civil Aviation rescue patrol 15 minutes from Puerto Obaldia,” Civil Aviation spokesman Victor de la Hoz said. “There were no survivors.”
The airplane left the capital’s Albrook airport Friday morning on a 220-mile flight to Puerto Obaldia near the Colombian border. Eight passengers were on board, including two Colombian nationals and four children.
But 29 miles short of its destination, the 20-seat De Haviland-made Twin Otter disappeared from radar screens, prompting an air and sea search of the remote Caribbean coastline and jungle hills of San Blas province.
Reports on local RPC radio said the airplane’s tail section and part of the cabin were found on the slopes of Cerro Pico Correto, about 15 miles short of its destination in San Blas province. The report said the airplane had not strayed from its flight path.
Civil Aviation and National Air Service rescue flights combed the Caribbean coast of eastern Panama for five days. The initial failure to find any sign of wreckage had led to speculation that the plane had been hijacked.
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