British explorer Benedict Allen has been seen “alive and well” near an airstrip in Papua New Guinea, days after a search was launched to find him.
Allen's sister reported the 57-year-old missing after he failed to catch a scheduled flight on Monday.
He had been travelling solo through Papua New Guinea to locate the remote Yaifo tribe, whom he had first met 30 years earlier.
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According to the BBC, the co-ordinating director for New Tribe Mission in Papua New Guinea, Keith Copley, had confirmed in writing at 5pm local time yesterday that Allen had been found “safe, well and healthy” but that he was “not out of danger yet”.
He was spotted at a remote airstrip 20 miles north-west of Porgera, Enga Province, the BBC writes, but adds that the airstrip is not accessible by road. A helicopter evacuation is expected to be arranged for tomorrow.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Allen would have been “under no illusions about the dangers and difficulties he would face” when trekking alone through Papua New Guinea, but noted that Allen's preparation did not help matters. “He chose not to take a satellite phone, made no evacuation plan and left no coordinates of where he intended to end his journey.”
Allen recently worked with The Week UK in association with National Geographic, bringing insight into the world of mass extinctions.
