Officials still did not have any definite word up to Sunday on whether an aircraft which was believed to have disappeared off the southern part of Great Guana Cay, Abaco on Friday did in fact go down in that area.
In an interview with the Bahama Journal on Saturday, Dundas Town resident Silbert Mills said emergency personnel did not resume the search after it was called off when darkness fell Friday evening.
According to reports, the United States Coast Guard stationed in Miami, Florida received an emergency position indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, signal around 1pm Friday and shortly afterward search and rescue officials proceeded to an area off southern Great Guana Cay to investigate the emergency call.
An EPIRB signal is typically transmitted when a vessel or aircraft is in distress.
After several hours of searching the area, however, rescue workers did not discover any debris field or other evidence of a crash, Chris Lloyd of the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association (BASRA) said Friday evening.
Noting some of the conditions that affected the search and recovery effort, Mr. Mills said Coast Guard and BASRA personnel had to deal with seas of up to 15 feet during their investigation on Friday.
He also pointed out that another factor that complicated the search was the depth of the water in the area where the distress signal is believed to have emanated from.
According to Mr. Mills, water in that area descends about 6,000 feet.
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
