2008 Guayana King Air Disappearance
On November 1, 2008, at around 2:14 P.M., the Beechcraft King Air 65-A90 departed the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to conduct aerial surveys on behalf of Prometheus Resources Guyana Inc., a company hoping to find uranium deposits.
The aircraft and crew were scheduled to conduct their survey in the Mazaruni area before returning to the airport. On board were pilot, Captain James Wesley Barker, First Officer Chris Paris, and Patrick Murphy, a Geophysics technician. At 3:06 P.M., the crew last made contact with the Control Tower at the Cheddi Jagan to report that they were commencing normal operations over the survey area. No further reports were received from the aircraft.
When the plane failed to return at the scheduled time, Air Traffic Control staff alerted other aircraft in the vicinity to try to establish contact with the Beechcraft but this was unsuccessful. Officials from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) were alerted to the crisis, and the initial search team included the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) Air-Corp and Special Forces, along with two British helicopters. Officials of Prometheus Resources (Guyana) Inc. also organized its own search party but no trace of the plane was found.
In the beginning, the rescue team picked up the missing plane’s Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT). However after seven days, the ELT signals ceased, and hope of finding the men alive faded. On November 16, 2009, some two weeks after the Beechcraft King Air plane disappeared, Robeson Benn, Guyana’s Minister of Transport and Hydraulics announced that the aerial search had been called off.
Theories
In December 2008, some pilots examining aerial photographs identified what appeared to be the tail of the Beech King aircraft protruding from trees in an area in the Middle Mazaruni jungle. This information led to suggestions that the pilot had crashed while flying over a long, steep slope, which borders the Middle and the Upper Mazaruni. According to this theory, the pilot underestimated the steepness of the escarpment and was forced to climb faster than he actually could. The aircraft stalled and then dove down into the dense vegetation. However when the search party reached the suspected crash site, they discovered that the “tail” of the aircraft was actually part of a dead tree.
In August, 2009, a US search-and-rescue team aided by specially trained dogs ventured into the Mid-Mazaruni area for one final attempt to recover the victims but found no trace of the plane or victims. They finally acknowledged that the victims may never be found.
The aircraft and crew were scheduled to conduct their survey in the Mazaruni area before returning to the airport. On board were pilot, Captain James Wesley Barker, First Officer Chris Paris, and Patrick Murphy, a Geophysics technician. At 3:06 P.M., the crew last made contact with the Control Tower at the Cheddi Jagan to report that they were commencing normal operations over the survey area. No further reports were received from the aircraft.
When the plane failed to return at the scheduled time, Air Traffic Control staff alerted other aircraft in the vicinity to try to establish contact with the Beechcraft but this was unsuccessful. Officials from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) were alerted to the crisis, and the initial search team included the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) Air-Corp and Special Forces, along with two British helicopters. Officials of Prometheus Resources (Guyana) Inc. also organized its own search party but no trace of the plane was found.
In the beginning, the rescue team picked up the missing plane’s Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT). However after seven days, the ELT signals ceased, and hope of finding the men alive faded. On November 16, 2009, some two weeks after the Beechcraft King Air plane disappeared, Robeson Benn, Guyana’s Minister of Transport and Hydraulics announced that the aerial search had been called off.
Theories
In December 2008, some pilots examining aerial photographs identified what appeared to be the tail of the Beech King aircraft protruding from trees in an area in the Middle Mazaruni jungle. This information led to suggestions that the pilot had crashed while flying over a long, steep slope, which borders the Middle and the Upper Mazaruni. According to this theory, the pilot underestimated the steepness of the escarpment and was forced to climb faster than he actually could. The aircraft stalled and then dove down into the dense vegetation. However when the search party reached the suspected crash site, they discovered that the “tail” of the aircraft was actually part of a dead tree.
In August, 2009, a US search-and-rescue team aided by specially trained dogs ventured into the Mid-Mazaruni area for one final attempt to recover the victims but found no trace of the plane or victims. They finally acknowledged that the victims may never be found.
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