Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

A joint search operation involving the Portland police, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) air wing, and the Caribbean Aviation Centre yesterday located the wreckage of a plane believed to be that of a single-engine Cessna-light aircraft which crashed in Portland on Friday evening. But neither of the two passengers was found.

Spokesperson for the JDF, Major Charlene Steer, told The Sunday Gleaner that at 6 p.m. yesterday, the wreckage was located by the JDF. However, she stressed that until further examinations by troops on the ground, there is no assurance that the wreckage found atop the Blue Mountains is that of the plane which crashed on Friday evening.

went down friday

According to police reports, about 5:30 p.m. Friday, the single-engine Cessna-light aircraft registered N-116-Q with at least two persons aboard - the pilot and a passenger - went down in the Hope Bay/Swift River area of the parish.

The police said that at 10 o' clock on Friday night, they received a report that the plane, which was en route from the Ken Jones aerodrome in Portland to Tinson Pen in Kingston, was involved in an accident.

spoke before boarding

Lisa Watson, wife of one of the persons on the plane, Christopher Watson, told The Sunday Gleaner that she spoke to her husband, who works for Tank-Weld Limited, on Friday evening, shortly before he boarded the plane.

"He called me after 5 p.m. and told me he was about to board the plane to come to Kingston to collect his vehicle," she said. "After that I didn't hear from him and called him, but couldn't get through to him."

However, Watson said later on that day, she received a call from her husband's boss, Johnny Ralstone, managing director of Tank-Weld Limited, who informed her that the plane had crashed, based on a conversation he had with the pilot.

"He (boss) said that the pilot called him and said that they were OK, and that they were making a fire to keep themselves warm," Watson said.