Cameroon and Congo Govt and military searchers have now been joined by the French military; as it has now been reported - accurately it seems - that the total complement aboard the CASA 212 was 11 - 6 Australians, 2 French nationals, 1 American, and 2 Britons.
Locals from the small village of Djoum, advised searchers that they heard an "explosion in the air" on Saturday morning.
Initially, these reports were discounted - but it now appears that more weight has been given to them, as Djoum is not far off the flight path of the CASA 212.
The flight path appears to have possibly run several NM N/NE of Djoum, and near a large forest/wilderness area known as Dja Reserve.
The villagers may have heard the actual aircraft crash into the jungle and thought it happened in the air. Searchers are now concentrating in the Djoum area, and local pygmy tribespeople are being requested to help, as they know the forested areas well. There is only one road in the area. The pics below show the road, and the vegetation around Djoum. It's obvious that jungle with a decent canopy exists in much of the area.
As most of you probably well know, an aircraft crashing through jungle canopy can often make only a small hole in the canopy, and it makes the finding of wreckage, extremely difficult indeed.
Another problem has been regular morning fog, which is making searching even more problematic.
