Chih. Gov. Recants Information: Plane Still Missing
ABC-7 confirmed that the information given by Chihuahua’s governor Tuesdsay was not true.
According to spokesman Humberto Jauregui in Chihuahua City, Governor Jose Reyes Baeza’s comments were based on an initial report that turned out to be incorrect.
Jauregui said Tuesday the plane was still missing, and in fact, members of the state attorney general’s office have joined in the investigation.
About noon Wednesday, the U.S Consulatereiterated statements madeearlier about the missing plane:
“U.S. and Mexican authorities are cooperating closely in trying to find the plane and its passengers. The plane is still missing.”
The U.S. Border Patrol told ABC-7’s Angela Kocherga Tuesday morning that Mexican military is leading the ground search for any possible wreckage.They saidno emergency transmitter had been located nor had any wreckage been found.
Kocherga reports that floodwaters have already inundated much of Ojinaga, Chihuahua — just across the border from Presidio.
Those floodwaters are hampering rescue and recovery crews trying to navigate the mountainous terrain where wreckage has been spotted.
The plane carrying International Boundary and Water Commission U.S. Chairman Carlos Marin,chairman of the Mexican IBWC Arturo Herrera,head of the Rio Grande Council of Governments Jake Brisbin, Jr. and the pilotwas slated to fly over Mexican airspace before it was scheduled to land early Monday afternoon in Presidio, Texas, according Spener.
Several members of the El Paso aviation community say the pilot of the plane is Matt Juneau of Volare Air Charter.
The IBWC is a bi-national agency responsible for many levees, dams and border markers in the area, and the officials on the plane were headed to Presidio to check on the flooding there.
The plane, apropeller-driven, chartered Cessna 421,took off from El Paso International Airport at about 10 a.m. Monday, Spener said.
The group’s flight plan included flying over the Luis Leon Dam on the Conchos River, Spener said.
That dam is along the Conchos River, which flows into the Rio Grande upstream from Presidio which has been waterlogged by floodwaters since late last week.
Spener said Marin was taking that route to inspect the dam from the air, but there was no plan to land there.
