Human Remains Also Found, No Survivors

Human remains have been recovered from a Chilean Air Force C-130 which went down earlier this week while enroute to Antarctica.

Reuters reports that in a news conference Thursday, Arturo Merino, head of Chile’s air force, said there were no survivors from the accident.

The plane had departed Monday from the southern city of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia. There were 12 passengers and 17 crew members on board the aircraft. “The condition of the remains we discovered make it practically impossible that anyone could have survived the airplane accident,” Merino said.

The first debris from the aircraft was found by Chilean air force officials Wednesday, according to the report. Additional wreckage was found by a Brazilian ship operating in the area.

Fox News reports that the pilots of the aircraft were very experienced, but likely encountered extreme weather over Drake's Passage, a remote stretch of ocean between South America and Antarctica. The ocean in that area plunges to depths of as much as 11,500 feet, according to reports.

Chilean authorities said they had searched some 70,000 square miles of the ocean searching for the plane.

Merino said that a forensic analysis of the remains would be conducted to confirm their origin.

(Image provided by the Chilean Air Force)

FMI: Source report
Source report