Rescue teams were this morning dispatched to a location some two miles north of the Mahdia in search of an Air Services Limited Cessna 206 after it failed to land as schedule at the mining community.

Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) , Director General , Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Egbert Field told the Guyana Chronicle that the Guyana Defence Force and members of the Guyana Police Force were racing toward the Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) location after an Emergency Locater Transmitter (ELT) signal was received from the location.

The aircraft, which carried the registration 8R-GFM was being manned by Capitan Imran Khan. He was on a shuttling mission between Chi Chi and Mahdia and was expected to land at around 08:47hrs this morning. Field said the GCAA received the information about 9:08hrs this morning.

ASL’s Executive Manager , Annette Arjoon-Martins told the Guyana Chronicle that after contact was lost with the aircraft five other planes were immediately dispatched to the location. She said a Trans Guyana Airways aircraft joined the search as well as two ASL helicopters were dispatched to the location.

In December 2014, an ASL, Britten Norman Islander, registered as 8R-GHE disappeared while on a routine shuttle operation from Mahdia to Karisparu in Region Eight.

The pilot, Captain Nicholas Persaud, 27, and cargo handler David Bisnauth, 51, along with the aircraft, have not been found. Subsequent searches by ASL and the GCAA came up empty-handed. The search was called off on January 19, 2015 with the crew presumed dead.