Chile's Air Force finds debris believed to be from missing plane

The Air Force of Chile said on December 11 that they have identified a debris, which is believed to be from a cargo plane that crashed with 38 people aboard over a remote stretch of a sea between South America and the Antarctic. It was found about 30 kilometers south of where the military aircraft made the last contact, according to the Air Force. The parts were being recovered for further studies to determine if they belonged to the Hercules C-130 cargo plane.

The Air Force said that the plane had 21 passengers and 17 crew members on board who were tasked to repair the floating oil pipeline that provided fuel to the country's base in Antarctica. According to reports, the Airforce plane had people from the University of Magallanes, an engineering company and the armed forces.

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Air Force initiated search operation

According to reports, the C-130 Hercules plane took off from Santiago and made a brief stop in Punta Arenas. The plane then took off towards the country's base in the Antarctic before it lost contact with air traffic control near the Drake Passage, a passage between Antarctica's South Shetland Islands and South America's Cape Horn. The Chilean Air Force said that the last recorded position of the aircraft was 390 nautical miles from Punta Arenas and 280 nautical miles from its Antarctic base.

After the 4-engine plane lost all contact with authorities, the Air Force immediately scrambled a search and rescue team by using its available resources in the capital city of Santiago and the Magallanes region in South Chile. It is said that the concerned authorities continued their search operation in the hope to find survivors, as per the reports.

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