Missing plane found, no loss of lives
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) — The St Vincent and the Grenadines government Monday said that the Dominican Republic-registered aircraft that went missing en route to Tobago last weekend has been found with no loss of lives.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, St Clair Leacock, told a radio programme that international, regional, and national agencies have located the aircraft. He gave no indication as to the location.
A statement from the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development had stated that the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron -identified as a B58T or 58P Pressurized Baron- bearing the registration number HI-1145, had departed Argyle International Airport here at 11:52 am (local time) last Friday with two people on board.
The plane was due to land at the A.N.R. Robinson International Airport in Tobago one hour and five minutes later.
Leacock told radio listeners that since the disappearance of the plane he had been in continuous contact with the Commissioner of Police, as well as regional security bodies including the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS) and the Trinidad-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS).
He said that the authorities have names associated with the plane, noting “I cannot share all of the information that we have on it”.
Leacock said that revealing specific operational details could compromise the ongoing work of the agencies involved and that the intelligence and security forces are closely monitoring the situation.
He said the authorities are focused “not so much (on) the aircraft because aircraft don’t fly itself, (but) the people who fly in that aircraft” so they can take an appropriate course of action.
Prior to its disappearance, the aircraft was being monitored on the flight tracking website Flightradar24, which showed it operating under visual flight rules (VFR) at an altitude of 4,025 feet and traveling at a speed of 142 knots.
All tracking data abruptly ceased mid-flight over the Southern Caribbean Sea, placing the aircraft somewhere near Grenadian or Venezuelan territorial waters.
