Minister Goñi: Patrol units will be arriving at scene of plane accident sometime today or tomorrow

SANTIAGO.- Although he confirmed that there is no longer an emergency signal being emitted from the Cessna 208 aircraft that disappeared some 18 kilometers to the east of La Junta in the Region of Aisén on Saturday, the minister of Defense, José Goñi, seemed hopeful that officials will be able to find the site of the accident by tomorrow morning at the latest.

According to Goñi, the emergency signal stopped emitting because the battery ran out, which is a “normal situation”, that “in no way affects the search”, because the location of the signal has already been defined.

Goní indicated that patrol officers are 1.5 or 1.6 kilometers from the site of the accident and stated that they are advancing just over a kilometer per day “although this depends on the cliffs in the area and the difficulties the search party encounters on the way”.

Referring to the possibility of finding survivors of the 10 passengers that were on the plane, Goní said, “we should never lose hope in this kind of situation” and “we are going to continue to search for them as though they are alive”.