Chilean Lower House's Defense Committee plans to convene at the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base in Antarctica this week to discuss the prevailing geopolitical conditions in the area after controversies with Argentina regarding sovereignty claims.
All five occupants of a Chilean Air Force (FACH) helicopter that crashed Monday in the Los Lagos Region were reported dead, according to an official statement. A Bell-412 aircraft belonging to Aviation Group No. 5 suffered an accident at approximately 8.30 pm in the sector of La Cumbre, in the commune of San Juan de la Costa, according to local media.
The Search and Rescue operation of the Chilean Air Force’s C-130, that made full use of assets and personnel available of the Falkland Islands Government (FIG), the British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) and the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI), continues along with the Chile’s search command, according to a joint statement released on Friday:
The Chilean Air Force contacted relatives of the 38 people aboard its Lockheed Hercules C-130 transport aircraft which went missing Monday afternoon en route to Antarctica to report the discovery of human remains in the area of the Drake Passage where the search for the airplane was underway, José Fernandéz, mayor of Magallanes, told the media.
No progress has been reported by Wednesday afternoon in the search for the missing Chilean Air Force (FACh) Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft with which all radio contact was lost at 6.13 p.m. Monday.
A Chilean Air Force (FACh) Hercules C130 aircraft took off at 4.55 p.m. local time Monday from the southern city of Punta Arenas and lost radio contact at 6.13 p.m. on its way to Antarctica, according to a press release from the defense authorities. The US built airplane was carrying 38 people on board, 17 crew members and 21 passengers.
What was to be a simple shift of scientists from the Polish station Henryk Arcotowski in the Antarctica Peninsula turned out into a dramatic rescue operation, involving the Chilean Air Force, after the three were stranded in a Zodiac for over three hours five miles offshore surrounded by ice and freezing winds.
The Mount Hudson volcano, located in southern Chile, maintained its activity on Friday following the eruption earlier in the week. A 1991 eruption of the Hudson send volcanic ash spewing over thousands of kilometres and as far east as the Falkland Islands.
A military plane with 21 people aboard went missing off Chile's Pacific coast near the Juan Fernandez Islands, authorities said on Friday.
Retired Chilean Air Force head Fernando Matthei denied this week any knowledge of the identities of the pilots involved in the air strike that helped solidify the 1973 military coup d’etat and subsequent 17-year dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.