PERU: RESCUE TEAMS SEARCH RUGGED AREA OF AMAZON JUNGLE FOR A TANS PERU AIRCRAFT WHICH WENT MISSING WITH 46 PEOPLE ON BOARD

Record ID: 645671

  • Title: PERU: RESCUE TEAMS SEARCH RUGGED AREA OF AMAZON JUNGLE FOR A TANS PERU AIRCRAFT WHICH WENT MISSING WITH 46 PEOPLE ON BOARD
  • Date: 10th January 2003
  • Summary: (EU) LAMUT, PERU (JANUARY 10, 2003) (REUTERS) MV: PEASANTS GATHERING IN THE MAIN PLAZA PREPARING TO HELP WITH THE SEARCH EFFORTS SCU: PEASANT WEARING A MACHETE POLICE SEARCHERS SV: FIREMEN SEARCHERS (EU) LIMA, PERU (JANUARY 10, 2003) (REUTERS) WS: NATIONAL AIRPORT VARIOUS OF FAMILY MEMBERS OF PASSENGERS ON MISSING PLANE ARRIVING AT AIRPORT (4 SHOTS) MV: TANS PERU PLANE ON TARMAC 14 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CHACHAPOYAS, LAMUT AND LIMA, PERU
  • Country: Peru
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA5YQKLG0IM5RZU7MBUXJXFZ89M
  • Story Text: Peruvians from the northern jungle joined police and military on Friday searching for a Tans Peru aircraft carrying 46 people that was feared to have crashed a day earlier, as hopes faded of finding survivors.
    Rescue teams searched a rugged area of Peru's Amazon jungle on Friday (January 10) for the Tans Peru plane with 46 people on board which lost contact with air traffic controllers as it approached a small mountain airport on Thursday (January 9).
    Steady rain and heavy cloud cover, however, hampered the search efforts.
    "Unfortunately, the conditions are not allowing us to get to the area," said Army Commander Martin Villavegas.
    The Fokker F-28 plane was declared in emergency at 8:43 a.m. (1343 GMT), minutes before it was to land in Chachapoyas, according to Jorge Belevan, spokesman for the state airline.
    In the nearby town of Lamut, peasants joined with police and firefighters to assist in the search.
    Tans Flight 222 took off from the coastal city of Chiclayo at 8:17 a.m. (1317 GMT) for the 30-minute flight to Chachapoyas, which is 7,600 feet (2,300 metres) above sea level.
    The plane was carrying 42 passengers, including seven children and one infant, and four crew members, Belevan said.
    Two of those on board were foreigners.
    Family members of the passengers on the missing plane gathered at the national airport in Lima to await news.
    Chachapoyas, 390 miles (650 km) north of Lima, is often visited by tourists travelling to Kuelap, a mountain citadel predating the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
    The government of President Alejandro Toledo has made Kuelap and the lush green Chachapoyas area -- home to scores of mysterious archaeological sites -- the spearhead of a campaign to boost visitors to sites beyond Machu Picchu, the famed mountain city that is Peru's top tourist destination.
    Tans Peru launched its twice-weekly Chiclayo-Chachapoyas route in November 2002. Tans, which for years was an Air Force service linking Peru's jungle areas with the rest of the nation, began commercial flights in 1998 and now flies three planes on 11 routes.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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