The Chilean government said it was considering dead all 21 people aboard a Chilean air force plane that crashed into the Pacific on its way to a remote archipelago.
“Based on observations and the search we carried out with the air force commander, we have reached the conclusion that the impact was such that it should have resulted in the instantaneous death of all of those who were aboard the aircraft,” Chilean Defense Minister Andres Allamand told reporters on Saturday.
A major search operation had been launched late on Friday in the waters around Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernandez Islands, about 700km west of the South American coastline, and some debris from the missing plane has been located in the sea.
Photo: Reuters
So far, only four bodies have been recovered.
As Chile’s navy and air force headed the search, fishermen in their boats left the archipelago early on Saturday in the hope of turning up survivors.
Strong winds were being blamed for causing the light aircraft to be blown off course, but it was unclear what had definitively caused the crash.
Government spokesman Andres Chadwick said the bodies identified were those of Erwin Nunez, an air force corporal; Galia Diaz, with the National Cultural Council; Roberto Bruce, a TVN network journalist; and Silvia Slager, a TVN producer.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said that while he was not losing hope, he was not optimistic.
“This was a very serious accident, and the forecast is not favorable,” he said in a statement.
Tributes for the victims poured in from across South America. Foreign ministers from member-nations of the Organization of American States, gathered for a meeting in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso, held a moment of silence.
Pope Benedict XVI said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the accident, in a message relayed by the archbishop of Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS