The National Personnel Recovery Center (CENRP) of the Colombian Air Force is coordinating the search for the Cessna 206 aircraft with registration HK 2803 affiliated to the company Avianline Charters SAS, reported missing on May 1, when it was known the loss of radio contact with traffic control agencies, declaring an emergency on the borders of the departments of Guaviare and Caquetá.
The Colombian Air Force has sent four aircraft to conduct the mission, two airplanes equipped with electro-optical systems and two helicopters, with personnel trained in search and rescue on board. Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos Pérez Guzmán, Head of the CENRP reports: "Since the search phase began, the Air Force has flown a little more than 35 hours, including all the aircraft that have been working for the mission.”
The CENRP plans the missions and search patterns to be carried out in coordination with the Air Combat Command No. 6, in the municipality of Solano, Caquetá, in the southwest of the country, a unit designated for the launch of operations due to its proximity to the area of the last report of HK 2803, there, the missions are carried out to find the single-engine and the 7 people who were traveling on board.
In these search efforts, the UH-60, Huey II, Fantasma and Caravan C-208 participate, which follow a pattern or route that leads them to cover as much territory as possible. In addition, the resources of the AC-47T have given continuity to searches of the area 24 hours a day, through lighting missions, with the launch of flares at night.
The teams of the Colombian air force aircraft have the ability to detect heat, meanwhile, the helicopters are equipped with rescue crane and jungle penetrator, which are elements that may make a vertical descent in case there is no space to land, they are in the same way equipped with stretchers and rescuers.
The efforts continue to be carried out in coordination with the civil aeronautics and its SAR (search and rescue) team, the Fire Department of Miraflores and Guaviare, Civil Defense, Red Cross, as well as the Military Forces deployed in the region.
Source: Press – Colombian Air Force
