The aircraft has been missing in excess of 24 hrs at this point, and no word has been heard from anyone on the ground, or in the air.
The isolated, relatively trackless region, where the aircraft was last heard from, approximately 25 mins after takeoff, has little by way of communication facilities. No distress messages were sent by the PIC of the aircraft, before contact was lost, and no emergency/distress signalling has been reported.
The chartered flight was from Youande in Cameroon, SE to an airfield at Yangadou, in the area of a village known as Mbalam, which is right near the Congo/Cameroon border. The flight left early Saturday, local time, and was expected to be approximately one hours duration.
Despite Talbot owning an 18 seat Bombardier BD-700, which was at Youande, the smaller CASA 212 was chartered to take the mining executives to the relatively rough and short airfield at Yangadou, because the BD-700 of Talbots was unable to land at the Yangadou airstrip.
The Cameroon and Congo Govts have sent out search aircraft... but I wouldn't like to pontificate on how quickly the wreckage of a CASA 212 would be found, in that heavily vegetated area.
Mining people who know the region, state that the area where the aircraft has been lost, is thick rainforest.
The media is now starting to say that it is highly likely that there are no survivors from the crash. The Cameroon Govt and military still appear to be confused on the number of pax and crew, stating either 9 or 10 in total. 10 appears to be correct.
Currently identified pax on board...
The entire Board of Directors of Sundance Resources (6 people)...
1. Geoff Wedlock (non-executive chairman of Sundance Resources). Former head of BHP Iron Ore division in Australia.
2. Don Lewis - Civil engineer. CEO of Sundance Resources and former MD of Multiplex Engineering.
3. Don Talbot - Non-executive director of Sundance, and its biggest shareholder via his personal investment vehicle, Talbot Group. He founded MacArthur Coal, one of Queenslands biggest coal producers.
Recently in the news as being charged with paying secret commissions to the former Queensland government minister Gordon Nuttall, who was found guilty and jailed for accepting bribes. Talbot was to face court in August and intended to plead not guilty to the charges.
4. Craig Oliver - Non-executive director of Sundance, and an Accountant.
5. John Jones - Non-executive director of Sundance, and GM of HWE Mining.
6. John Carr-Gregg - Lawyer, and Company Secretary of Sundance Resources.
7. Natasha Flason Brian - Talbot Groups senior female assistant - a French national who was resident in Australia.
Two other currently unidentified pax, who are possibly African business executives.
This loss is a serious loss to the mining business community of Australia, with the majority of those lost, being high profile people with long records in the mining industry. Trading in Sundance Resources shares will be suspended upon opening of the ASX, Monday 21st June.