By Tracey Khan – Drakes
[www.inewsguyana.com] – A decision is expected to be made soon as it relates to ending the search and rescue mission for the two men who were onboard the missing Air Services Limited (ASL) Britten Norman Islander plane, according to Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority Zulficar Mohamed.
The aircraft disappeared from radar after taking off from Mahdia Airstrip, Region Eight on December 28, 2014.
The pilot, 27 – year – old Nicky Persaud, was married with a 3 – year – old son, and is said to be one of the most experienced in the area working for Air Services Limited.
Fifty – one – year old David Bisnauth, a father of four who was a Cargo Loader on the plane is also missing. He was employed by Air Services Limited three years ago and lived in the company’s facilities at Mahdia.
During a telephone interview with iNews today, Tuesday January 13, Mohamed said the issue of ending the search will be discussed with Transport Minister, Robeson Benn.
“There has to be a cutoff point at some time; we are looking at that, we will talk to Minister about that but we haven’t made a firm decision on it as yet but at some point we will have to do so,” Mohamed explained.
He also noted that it is highly unlikely that the men are still alive, when certain factors are taken into consideration.
“If they were alive they would have contacted someone…so the likelihood of finding them is very slim.”
The Director General further explained that another team has been deployed to the area and is expected to reach the ground location sometime today or early tomorrow.
“The weather is not that good and that has prevented them from doing that much work…we have Special Forces there along with some of the people from along the area who would have reported sightings.”
Mohamed noted that usually a search of this nature would last for approximately two to three weeks the most and it has been seventeen days since these men have been missing.
There have been several sightings of the plane by residents in Region 8 and search efforts have been concentrated there.
17 Days is not enough time to abort this search, if the plane went down then the Special Forces ranks should be able to locate such. The have almost nothing else to do and we are talking about lives, the weather will hold up so let booths hit the ground and bring either joy of finding them or closer to their families. At best it is the least you can do.