-Brazilian pilot being sought
Civil Aviation authorities and local law enforcement are trying to find a Brazilian pilot after his aircraft was found abandoned on an illegal airstrip, sprayed in a different colour and with a changed registration number, just over a day after he set out for his homeland.
Pilot Gonçalo Ferreira Lima Neto, 41, who had previously been involved in a mishap a year ago in Brazil, was last heard from on Sunday, when his plane was sighted far off his projected pathway.
The plane was seized by Civil Aviation Authorities early yesterday morning at an illegal airstrip in the community of Pirara in Region 9. “The aircraft was at an illegal airstrip east of Pirara and activities of some great concern were underway,” Transport Minister Robeson Benn told a press briefing yesterday.
Both the serial number and the striping of the aircraft had been changed, he said, while noting that the army and the police informed their commanders and an operation was launched.
There was no sign of the pilot, Gonçalo, who on October 30 last year had fallen in a forested area shortly after takeoff from a mining region located near Oriximiná, in the Brazilian State of Para.
“We are suspicious about everything with regard to this aircraft,” Benn said yesterday, noting that the pilot not only gave wrong location coordinates to aviation authorities but “did not arrive where he should have arrived and explanations given did not gel with what was seen in terms of the activities at the aircraft and also too in terms of where he should have been when he gave certain explanation to where he was when he called in [on Sunday].
He informed that two months ago, the aircraft, which bore registration 8CC1K, stopped in Guyana as a “technical flight,” after takeoff from Trinidad en route to Brazil. During the period it was here, it underwent mechanical repairs at the Ogle Airport.
It took off from Ogle last Saturday, around 12.29 pm, with Gonçalo alone on board, destined for Boa Vista, Brazil. It was somewhere around 3.40 pm that Civil Aviation Authorities here listed the craft as missing after several communication attempts went unanswered.
From then through Saturday evening, aircraft were put on alert to look out for the missing plane and authorities in Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname were notified. Aerial searches by the police and other authorities of strips along the intended flight plan, failed to locate the plane,” Benn said.
On Sunday morning, Benn said, officials took to the Rescue Coordination Centre and efforts were once again mobilised to look for the craft.
Although a sighting of the plane at an area off Mahdia came on Sunday, this was off its projected pathway. When the pilot was radioed, he gave a “garbled explanation” as to where he was and that was the last time they heard from him.
No signs of distress
Sources told Stabroek News that from all indications, persons had planned the “so-called disappearance of the plane” since there were no indications that it had crash landed and that the pilot was in any distress. “It appears that this was organised… The plane did not crash land and when we checked there was nothing to show that the pilot was in any distress or needed help,” one of the members of the search party told Stabroek News.
Checks are currently being made to ascertain if the plane had been in Guyana on any prior visit, while the pilot is being sought by law enforcement officials.
According to Brazilian media reports, Gonçalo, who has over a decade and a half of experience as a pilot, was involved in a mishap on October 30, last year, when a single-engine brand Skyline that he was piloting fell in a forested area, a short while after takeoff. He was the only one on the plane at the time.
According to a report on notapajos.globo.com, six minutes after takeoff for Santarém, Gonçalo made a radio call to another pilot, calmly giving his coordinates while explaining that his plane was about to crash. Initial searches in the forested area where he tried to make an emergency landing uncovered no sign of the plane or a fire to indicate an explosion.
After almost a day of searching, Gonçalo was found near Oriximiná in a treetop, where he was spotted by friends who flew over the area and realized that there was a mayday call from the canopy of a large tree in a mountainous area. He managed to signal rescuers using a tree branch. He was later hoisted by a helicopter of the FAB (Brazilian Air Force) from the canopy of the tree, which served as his shelter after the mishap.
He was said to be quite injured after the incident owing to the impact of the crash. The report said the aircraft that crashed was not sighted because the area was dense forest and difficult to access.
A doctor later described his condition as stable. “He had a facial trauma and trauma in the right elbow, his physical examination is normal, he is stable (…) there was no concussion, just a nasal trauma and trauma in the right elbow,” Account Director of HMS, Fabio Tozzi, was quoted as saying.
