–    main concern is finding closure for those affected
TWENTY-eight-year old Captain James Wesley Barker, 23-year-old First Officer Chris Paris, and Patrick Murphy, a Geophysics technician; unfamiliar names for most people, but not for the families who wait for some absolution to come their way.

Captain James Wesley Barker	First Officer Chris Paris	Patrick Murphy, Geophysics technician

In a recent interview with Vice President, Investor Relations, Ms. Nancy Chan-Palmateer of The Uranium Discovery Company – U308 Corp, she made it clear that were there any leads to surface the company would pursue these in the interests of the missing men.

On November 2, 2008 an aircraft that was undertaking a geophysical survey for Prometheus Resources (Guyana) Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of U3O8 Corp., was reported missing in Guyana with three people on board.

Palmateer recalled that the last communication from the aircraft was on Saturday, November 1, 2008. Reports were that the last contact was made with the Control Tower at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, at 3:06pm that day to report the commencement of normal operations over the survey area. The aircraft departed Timehri at 2:14pm on November 1st.

Search and rescue efforts were led by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority and assisted by members of the British Royal Air Force, who were in the area on a training mission.

According to U3O8 Corp., Terraquest Limited, a specialist in airborne geophysics based in Markham, Ontario, was contracted to conduct a geophysical survey in the Region One (Barima/ Waini) area of Guyana under the permission of the local authorities.

Terraquest contracted a twin-engine, turboprop Beechcraft King Air from Dynamic Aviation Inc. of Bridgewater, Virginia to undertake the airborne survey. The Pilot and First Officer are American citizens working with Dynamic Aviation, and the third person is an airborne geophysical operator with Terraquest from Canada.

Four fixed-wing aircrafts and two helicopters, including a plane and crew from Dynamic Aviation, were involved in the search and rescue operations, but nothing was ever found.

In addition, U3O8 Corp. had two field teams in the survey area to provide ground support as required.

The twin-engine aircraft, coloured in white with red stripes, was expected to return at around 6:15 on the day it disappeared.

Hope
Mr. Shazadh Khan, Officer Manager/ Project Management Consultant with the local subsidiary of U308 Corp – Prometheus Resources, said, in an invited comment, that at present the hope that burns is for badly-needed closure.

“We are waiting for something concrete, a sighting from a pork-knocker or so. We do not want to go on a wild goose chase, but what we do want is closure. Closure is very important,” he said.

Khan explained that, for those affected by this tragedy, some amount of closure will serve to disperse the dark cloud that shadows their lives.
He said, “We are not saying this for the sake of saying it. We are committed to this effort.”

Khan affirmed that monies have been set aside in the Company’s budget to facilitate any search operation.

“We are hoping for some closure,” he reiterated, “not only for the families and friends of the men that have disappeared, but for the Company too.”

Khan recalled that there have been other incidents of aircrafts going missing in the same region, but maintained that technology has moved a far way since then and so what was not possible then can be so now.

“The canopy has met a match with today’s technology,” he opined.