A second side-scan sonar, from the Hydrographic Institute, was mounted today on the lifeboat «Diligente» at the Sagres station, to help in searches to locate the missing man on Friday, following the fall of a man into the sea. light aircraft, two miles south of Sagres.
According to Captain Carvalho Pinto, captain of the port of Lagos, who coordinates the operations, the second sonar "arrived overnight with two operators" and will now also be used "to enlarge the search field."
This morning, the search resumed a little later, at 9:30 am, due to the heavy fog that fell over the Sagres area.
Yesterday, the second day of searches, the Maritime Police used a vessel in the operations, equipped with a lateral sonar, and on board which they were following five elements of the forensic diving group.
During the afternoon, these specialists carried out a dive “in the area of possible contact”, but found nothing, so the second day of searches ended with no results.
On Friday, the day the plane crashed in the fog, off Porto da Baleeira, in Sagres, the plane's wreckage was discovered, including parts of the fuselage and a wheel, as well as objects of the pilot, such as footwear, aircraft and crew documents.
At the moment, searches are trying to find, at the bottom of the sea, which is between 20 and 30 meters deep in that area, the rest of the Cessna aircraft, with registration CS-AYH, namely its cabin, where the pilot's body may still be .
The Cessna 152 which crashed on Friday yesterday belonged to the Aero Clube de Portimão and it was used for instruction and pleasure flights. That was the case with the failed pilot, José dos Santos Inácio, 74 years old, Algarvian from Mexilhoeira Grande, emigrant in Canada, who was going on a recreational flight, after taking off at 10:15 am from the Municipal Aerodrome of Portimão.
The aircraft ended up crashing less than an hour after rising. The alert has been given by the fishing vessel “Adriano José”, on Friday, around 11 am. According to the report that the crew of the fishing boat made to the maritime authorities, the plane was flying at low altitude and ended up crashing into the sea.
Despite not having seen the plane crash, due to the intense fog that was felt, the fishermen ended up finding, shortly afterwards, wreckage and documents at sea, which confirmed their suspicions. “Virtually all the wreckage was found by them,” Carvalho Pinto said.
Photo: Armindo Vincent
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