Plane missing, search on for pilot and passengers
Weather could have also been a factor in the disappearance today of a small plane belonging to Blancaneaux Lodge in the Mountain Pine Ridge. The Islander craft named "Sophia" piloted by Belizean Rene Tam and carrying two guests, left the International Airport at ten this morning. According to the Civil Aviation Department, the last radio contact was around ten-sixteen when the plane was near La Democracia and made a routine position report on the common broadcast frequency. Director of Civil Aviation Jose Contreras told News Five that when the plane failed to arrive at Blancaneaux's airstrip on schedule and had not made an emergency landing at any of the three other airstrips in the Cayo District--Belmopan, Central Farm or Spanish Lookout--the lodge reported the plane missing. A B.D.F. Airwing search was immediately launched and this afternoon the British Forces helicopters joined in the effort. Authorities are not releasing the names or nationalities of the other passengers on the aircraft until their families can be notified. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, the trip to Blancaneaux normally takes about thirty-five minutes and the plane's expected altitude would be about twenty-five hundred feet. The Belize Met office told News Five today that winds in the area were around thirty to forty knots with higher gusts, drizzle, and heavy fog. The air search was called off this evening when it grew dark, but B.D.F. ground searches are going at this hour and if the weather permits tomorrow the air search will continue.
Tam has been a pilot since 1991 and was the former chief pilot at Maya Island Air. In March of this year he resigned that post and took over Blancaneux's Islander.