MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's Juan Fernadez plane crash, four bodies found

First bodies were taken at Santiago for recognition (Photo Reuters)

After the first four bodies were salvaged from the Chilean aircraft and new parts of the fuselage were found, near Juan Fernández islands, Mayor Leopoldo González deemed it impossible that there are any survivors to the accident. “The plane is 26 metres below the sea,” he explaine.

The bodies were found by fishermen earlier Saturday. Two were identified as female and other two as male, Navy sources confirmed.

The first finding was made this morning, when the Chilean Navy confirmed the discovery of a female body along the coast, close to the Juan Fernández islands, where the airplane pertaining to the Chilean air force (FACH) went missing yesterday afternoon and which had twenty-one passengers aboard.

Rescue aircraft and boats began an intense search at dawn today as part of a wide search investigation for the aircraft CASA 212, which disappeared off the Pacific coast of Chile, 670 km west of the Chilean capital.

The FACH directed comment toward the incident, giving recognition that this was no longer the search for a “missing” aircraft, if not “the wreckage” of an airplane, which they presume to have crashed not far from the islands.

Yesterday during a press conference, President Sebastian Piñera said, “I empathize with the anguish and uncertainty of the relatives of the 21 passengers aboard the plane which is presumed to have gone down.” “This is a very hard blow for our country.”