Mozambique Plane With 34 People On Board Goes Missing
Flight TM470 took off from Maputo at 09H26 GMT and had been due to land in the Angolan capital Luanda at 13H10 GMT, but never arrived, the airline said in a statement.
"Initial information suggests it might have landed in Rundu, in
northern Namibia near the border with Botswana and Angola."
"LAM airlines, aeronautical and airport authorities are trying to
establish contact to confirm the information," it added.
Company spokesman Norberto Mucopa could not confirm the nationalities
of the people on board the Brazilian-made Embraer 190 or if they
included government officials.
"The last contact was in the north of Namibia," he told AFP.
LAM CEO Marlene Manave told journalists the last contact with the
aircraft had been at 1130 GMT.
Heavy rain in the area where it disappeared complicated the search,
she said, according to Canalmoz newspaper.
A police commander confirmed the incident to AFP in Namibia.
"We are busy searching. It's dark now and it makes our job a bit
difficult," said Olavi Auanga, police commander of the Kavango West
region, where the control tower lost signal with the aircraft.
An aviation officer in the area told AFP on condition of anonymity
that unconfirmed reports suggested the airplane may have gone down in
the Bwabwata National Park around 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of
Rundu.
The 6,100-square-kilometre (618-square-mile) reserve covers the narrow
strip of land formerly known as the Caprivi strip, a
sparsely-populated area with wetlands and dense forests.
The European Union banned LAM from flying in its airspace in 2011.
"Significant safety deficiencies" led to the blacklisting of all air
carriers certified in Mozambique, the EU said at the time.
The concern was about Mozambique's civil aviation authority, rather
than the track record of the various airlines.
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