São Paulo.- Brazilian authorities have been seeking since Wednesday the whereabouts of a helicopter with three occupants, including a worker from the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), a body linked to the Government, who were traveling through the Amazon.
The team on board was on a mission to inspect landing strips in the region of the Montanhas do Tumucumaque national park, located between the states of Pará and Amapá (north), according to Funai in a note released this Thursday.
The helicopter, from the Sagres company and hired by the Department of Indigenous Health of the Ministry of Health, took off around noon on Wednesday with the forecast of arriving in Macapá, the capital of Amapá, two hours later, which never happened.
Since then, the fate of the device and its three occupants has not been known: Funai engineer José Francisco Vieira, Lieutenant-Colonel Josilei Gonçalves de Freitas and a mechanic identified as Gabriel.
The authorities have already begun to carry out searches in the area to try to locate the helicopter, without “there is still information regarding the aircraft or its passengers.”
“FUNAI is still in contact with other organizations involved in the search,” the entity said.
According to official sources, the route that the team had planned to complete crosses an area that is difficult to access and can become a dangerous route in any inclement weather.
