It was a scene of devastation yesterday at the site where an aeroplane crashed in Trelawny, killing the three people on-board.
The aircraft, which was reported missing after taking off from the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James, at 4:18 pm on Thursday, was discovered about 3:30 pm yesterday by members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Air Wing, in an area between Duncans and Samuel Prospect.
Bits and pieces of the aeroplane and the mutilated bodies of its occupants were recovered deep in the woods of the rustic community by the army men.
“The small aircraft that was lost from radar yesterday evening was located about two miles south of Duncans. The Civil Aviation Authority is expected here in the morning and until then, the scene is being kept sterile,” Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Sterling told the Jamaica Observer last night.
The aircraft — a Cessna 206F operated by Rutair Limited (Airlink) — was last seen on radar at 4:36 pm on Thursday, above Trelawny, 32 kilometres (20 miles) east of Sangster International Airport, between Duncans and Clark’s Town. The aircraft was heading to the Tinson Pen Aerodrome.
The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday that immediately following the aircraft’s disappearance from the radar, search and rescue procedures were initiated, with contacts to the Duncans and Clark’s Town police stations and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).
The JDF initiated search and rescue flights Thursday evening and resumed yesterday morning.
Yesterday, curious onlookers massed in an open valley, situated in front of a slope with a thick growth of logwood trees which the ill-fated craft crashed.
One resident, who lives in close proximity to the crash site, told the Observer that it was raining heavily on Thursday night when he heard the low-flying plane go down in the thick growth of trees.
He said he did not raise an alarm until yesterday when he heard the soldiers searching for the plane. The resident said he directed them to the area where he saw the plane “dip”.
“I was going to work and was trying to get out of the rain, so I saw when it (plane) dipped; so rain caught me. Mi hear the plane coming low and saw it. It was raining so hard and the thunder and lightning, but I say it look like this plane have some fault and me see it dip in the trees,” security guard Tashamaron Jarrett, who is also called ‘Muscle’, told the Observer yesterday.
Other people who live nearby said they heard the plane in the heavy downpour and when they no longer heard it, they thought it had flown away.
In the meantime, family members and friends of the deceased, who gathered near the scene, stared blankly, grief etched on their faces.
Among the mourners was the wife of one of the deceased. The Observer understands that the couple was married less than three weeks ago.
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