One week ago; emergency services picked up the following radio transmission.
Due to atmospheric conditions at the time; the transmission was heavily garbled.
Text follows:
..yday, ma..ay mayday! T..s is ..uglas D..3 Cha..ie ..lf Alpha Quebec V...... ..... ....ec Victor, ...ha Que..c Vict...
...ine fire. En..ne fir. in Nu.... One ......, I...y ...ain engine fire in Numbe........ en...e, the G....mned th..g just blew up!
.e are ou......ontrol .....oing down, I say ...in we ... goi.. dow..
Pos...ion about one hun..ed ..fty..iles sou......theast of ....tos!
W...re b....ng o.., I say again we...are baili.. o...
Remainder of the transmission was lost. Given the readable text, it is assumed the pilot abandoned the radio at that point in an effort to escape the aircraft.
An ELT signal was recieved via sattelite feed 67 seconds after the mayday terminated. Sattelite imagery with the ELT location follows:
Search and rescue crews from Peru, Chile, Argentina and Bolivia were dispatched to the area with maximum haste. SAR crews subsequently found the wreckage of an aircraft which has been positively identified as DC-3 C-GAQV.
SAR has not as yet located either of the two occupants onboard.
