GUYANA: Rescue Coordination Centre activated to find missing aircraft

Last Updated on Sunday, 28 December 2014, 20:24 by GxMedia

Guyanese authorities Sunday afternoon established its Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) to search for an Air Services Limited (ASL) plane that went missing over Mahdia while shuttline fuel and other supplies to Karisparu, another gold-mining area, officials said.

Transport Minister, Robeson Benn confirmed that an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) signal was picked up by another aircraft that was travelling the Ogle-Lethem route around the same time. That information, he said, was being used to plot the probable location of the Britten-Norman Islander  plane bearing registration number 8R-GHE.

Benn, however, noted that there were issues of distance and height that had to be considered in calculating the precise location of the ELT signal.

He confirmed that planes and helicopters were involved in searching the area and several Special Forces soldiers were on standby to assist in an operation should the plane be spotted.

Two persons- Pilot Nickey Persaud,27 and an unnamed cargo loader 51-year old David Bisnauth- were aboard the plane when communication was lost about 1 PM.

Sunday’s disappearance of the plane and its occupants during a shuttle is reminiscent of the crash of a Trans Guyana Airways (TGA) Cessna Caravan on January 20, 2014 that claimed the lives of the Canadian pilot, Blake Slater, and a cargo loader, Dwayne Jacobs.

They were moving cargo from Olive Creek and Imbaimadai when the plane developed engine trouble and crashed in the densely forested and mountainous area.