Plane crashes off Chilean coast

Rescuers are searching for wreckage among the Juan Fernandez islands, 500 miles from the country’s Pacific coast A Chilean air force plane with 21 people aboard, including a popular local television host, crashed in the Juan Fernandez islands off the country’s Pacific coast, authorities said. Juan Fernandez’s mayor, Leopoldo Gonzalez, said the plane tried without success to land at the islands’ airport, which is 515 miles from Chile’s coast. “The accident must be accepted as a fact,” Gonzalez said in an interview with Television Nacional de Chile. Rescue boats were searching for the wreckage of the plane but so far they have only found some equipment, the mayor said. Defence minister Andres Allamand said searchers faced “particularly adverse” conditions, adding that the plane’s status was still listed as missing. Felipe Camiroaga, one of Chile’s most popular television presenters, was on the flight, Gonzalez said. Camiroaga, 44, worked for the state TV channel’s Good Morning Everyone programme, and was travelling to the islands for a story on the reconstruction following the 27 February magnitude-8.8 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out its main town. Also on board was businessman Felipe Cubillos, who had been working on post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. The Chilean air force plane took off from the capital, Santiago, at 2pm local time and lost contact with air control almost four hours later, according to a statement from aviation authorities. Chile Plane crashes Air transport guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 2, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.