Chile plane with 38 aboard goes missing

Santiago, December 10

A Chilean military plane with 38 persons aboard has gone missing after it took off from the country’s south for a base in Antarctica and is presumed to have crashed, authorities have said.

Seventeen of those on board the C-130 aircraft were crew and the others were passengers, Chile’s air force said.

The plane is believed to have crashed and “all national and international air and maritime means available in the area are continuing the search (for survivors) in the sector where communications were lost with the aircraft,” it added in a statement.

The four-engine aircraft took off Monday at 4:55 pm (19:55 GMT) from an airbase in the southern city of Punta Arenas and contact was lost at 6:13 pm. The air force said conditions for flying were good and that it was in contact with the families of those on board, many of whom were traveling to carry out logistical support tasks at the country’s largest Antarctic base Eduardo Frei.

Personnel were also being transferred to inspect the base’s floating fuel supply pipeline and undertake anticorrosive treatment.

President Sebastian Pinera, whose country is witnessing civil unrest, tweeted he would fly to Punta Arenas with Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel. — AFP