Weather from Hurricane Gamma possible factor in Belize plane crash.

[Panama Jack]

Plane missing, search on for pilot and passengers

http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_pics/15168.jpg

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.

[bumboclot]

Yesterday afternoon they found the wreckage of the Blancaneaux Islander
crashed into the mountains near Ian Anderson's Caves Branch Resort. There
were no survivors.

[bumboclot]

http://new.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=15173

that's 7 hull losses (not to mention several other incidents) in a country of only 250,000 people in the past 3 years...

maybe time for the authorities/airlines to make some changes?

[crack up]

Check to see the # of accidents in the U.S. and Canada in the last 3 months, maybe it's time the authorites / operators make some changes there to.

[Panama Jack]

You've got a good point bumboclot. Unfortunately, this is a problem throughout the region, and a root of the problem is the lack of enough government funding to go into infraestructure-- runways, radar, nav-aids, approach development, as well as the authorities who often are charged with regulating and supervising aviation. While the international airports have world-class facilities, many others do not. When I look at my local airport the local airport, the neglect is painfully obvious and it is clear that the place has seen better days (I sometimes like to imagine what it was like decades ago).

Many of the countries in the region (including Belize) suffer from a categorization problem simply because national governments can ill afford to invest in their Civil Aviation Directorates when they can't even raise funds to pave their highways or repair potholes in existing highways. Supervision, supervision, and more supervision (from a government entity which plays fair and has real teeth) play a key role in contributing to aviation safety.

Unfortunately, aviation is an expensive business and someone has to pay for it. My hope remains with GPS as an inexpensive and reliable measure to provide all-weather navigation and approaches to almost anywhere. This will help, in great part, reduce the number of VFR into IMC types of accidents (I say this keeping in mind that at this moment, the probable cause has not been established for the said accident) in many cash-strapped parts of the world.

Unfortunately, even so-called "First World" countries such as Canada and the USA have a fair amount of aviation disasters, year after year after year, for the same reasons as the ones that happen in Latin America-- VFR into IMC leading to CFIT, fuel exhaustion, operators pushing limits, economics "or a false perception of economics" creating bent metal.

My condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

[crack up]

Sad thing, Can't blame regs, operators or authorites though. Privately operated flt in a privately owned acft.

The commercial operators would not have dispatched this flt in the conditions at the time.