All people on board of the Chilean Military plane that went missing from Monday are ‘practically impossible’ to survive, Arturo Merino, the head of Chile’s air force said.
“The condition of the remains we discovered make it practically impossible that anyone could have survived the airplane accident,” Merino said. “I feel immense pain for this loss of lives.”
The announcement came after the Chilean air force found the wreckage of the C-130 Hercules cargo plane earlier on Wednesday; however not confirmed immediately the wreckage belonging to the missing plane. Later they had recovered human remains from some of the 38 people on the board.
Merino said that authorities would conduct forensic analysis on the remains to confirm their origin.
According to Magallanes Governor José Fernández, relatives of those missing had been informed about the find.
Shortly after the announcement of the missing plane, the UK, Brazil Argentina Uruguay had sent their planes to help with the search operation. Brazil had also found some debris and personal items suspected of belonging to the missing plane and people on the board. The wreckage was first found 30 km away from the last-known position of the plane.
The plane was travelling to a base in the Antarctica from Chile’s southern city of Punta Arenas.
Three of the total were the Chilean soldiers; two were civilian; one student; the remaining passengers were the members of the air force as per the statement released by the Chilean air force after the plane lost the contact.
