A Chilean military plane with 38 people on board is missing and presumed to have crashed, the country’s air force has said.
“The plane is presumed to have crashed, given that the amount of fuel and the plane’s autonomy had already run out,” said General Francisco Torres in a televised press conference.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The plane passengers included personnel from the armed forces and members of an engineering firm and southern Chile’s University of Magallanes, CNN reports. They had been due to carry out “logistical support tasks” at the Antarctic base, according to air force officials.
The aircraft departed on Monday, stopping briefly in the southern city of Punta Arenas, before continuing onwards. The plane lost radio contact at around 6pm local time (9pm GMT) near the Drake Passage, a body of water separating the tip of South American and Antarctica that is known for its treacherous weather conditions.
General Eduardo Mosqueira said that the plane had not activated any distress signal, reports the BBC.
The air force has declared a state of alert and sent out search and rescue teams from Santiago and Chile’s southern Magallanes region. Authorities are searching for survivors near the area of the plane’s last known location, and are informing the families of those on board.
President Sebastian Pinera tweeted that he was “dismayed” by the loss and was monitoring the situation from Santiago.
-
Nasa’s new dark matter mapUnder the Radar High-resolution images may help scientists understand the ‘gravitational scaffolding into which everything else falls and is built into galaxies’
-
Is the US about to lose its measles elimination status?Today's Big Question Cases are skyrocketing
-
‘No one is exempt from responsibility, and especially not elite sport circuits’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
