Despite the new technologies and advancements in modern flight, there are rare occurrences in which planes fail mid-flight. In worse case scenarios, some planes disappear without any trace and it takes months or even years before being found. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t give up on searching for missing flights though.
Last week, searchers who were combing through Antarctica in hopes of finding the remains of a C-130 Hercules military transport plane that carried 38 people. The plane went missing December 9 after radio contact was lost 70 minutes after its departure. The searchers found the parts of the military transport plane as well as human remains which were identified to be from the people on board.
According to Air Force General Arturo Merino at a news conference, it would be practically impossible that there are any survivors in the crash considering the nature of the crash, as well as the freezing temperatures of the water, is any of those on board managed to get out on time. If there were any survivors though, they had hoped to find them in the region still.
Finding the remains of the plane and the passenger was only the beginning of the process. An international team of scientists immediately began DNA analysis which would help identify the crash victims. Some of the items they worked on were a landing wheel, a part of the plane’s an inside wall, and personal items like a backpack and a shoe.
According to experts, the pilot most likely had difficulty maneuvering the plane because of the strong gusts of wind that are present in the area. The searchers found the remains of the plane and the passengers roughly 30 kilometers from where the pilots made last contact with their control tower. The search of the planes has also taken the search and rescue team to depts of at least 4,000 meters.
The search team is still hoping to recover what remains of the plane underwater as this could be the key in understanding what went wrong and hopefully prevent future occurrences from happening. However, this won’t be an easy task because of several hurdles. First is that the remains are very deep, second is the temperatures in the water, and last is the weight of the remains.
Hopefully, the search team will be able to take what they can so that they can prevent more accidents like this from happening.
