Peruvian Plane with 20 On Board Goes Missing

The Peruvian Air Force aircraft believed lost last night while operating a civilian essential service flight with 20 on board was a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6A turboprop engines, the Twin Otter is so reliable, adaptable and its short-field, rugged-terrain capabilities so irreplaceable that Canadian company Viking Air Limited plans to start manufacturing the DHC-6 again nearly 20 years after de Havilland Canada (now Bombardier) ended production with 844 built. Credit: Bombardier Aerospace

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A Peruvian air force plane with 20 people on board was declared missing in the country's northeastern jungle and is believed to have crashed in a rainstorm, officials said Friday.

A Twin Otter plane piloted by a three-man air force crew and carrying 17 civilian passengers was declared missing Thursday evening after departing from the community of Orellana some 580 kilometers (360 miles) northeast of Lima, the Defense Ministry said in a communique.

The plane was part of the air force's civic action flights connecting small communities in the jungle not served by commercial airliners.

Officials in Iquitos, a city 1,010 kilometers (625 miles) northeast of Lima from where the flight originated, said low clouds and heavy rain were hindering rescue operations.

The Defense Ministry communique said the plane lost radio contact with airports at 5:45 p.m. on its flight between Orellana and Contamana, its next stop. It was scheduled to stop at five airports. Its last scheduled stop was Pucallpa, a city 490 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of Lima.

Norman Lewis del Alcazar, vice president of the Loreto region, whose capital is Iquitos, confirmed that the plane was carrying 17 passengers.

He said it was raining heavily when the plane departed from Orellana.

Lewis said military patrols were trying to reach the area where the plane may have gone down. Radio reports said two military helicopters and a plane were overflying the area searching for the plane.

Ivan Vasquez, president of the Loreto region, complained that the air force planes that provide the civic action flights are all old. He said the regional government has an agreement with the air force to provide fuel for the flights "to reduce the cost of the tickets so that poor people can travel in emergencies."

There are few roads in the vast northeastern jungle of Peru, and other than river travel, which can take days, the flights are the only way to reach distant points.

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