A plane carrying oil workers from Ecuador's state-owned oil company was missing Thursday after failing to arrive at its destination in the Amazon jungle, a company official said.
The Fairchild F-27 aircraft was carrying 21 employees of Petroecuador and five crew members, all the people on board were Ecuadorean, according to a passenger list released by Petroecuador.
Rescue workers were searching for the plane by air and land. The twin-engine propeller plane took off from Quito at 10:30 a.m. and was headed for Lago Agrio, a jungle outpost 110 miles northeast of the capital.
The plane lost radio contact at 10:49 a.m., the Civil Aviation office said. Authorities began search operations 20 minutes later, after the aircraft did not arrive at its scheduled time.