Controller

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Three months ago, eight people disappeared on a flight deep into the Amazon. Small planes are often the only way to get around, But to lie as most of the country tracks are unofficial, the pilots where you fly. And this means that, if land is lost, it can be unclear where to look for them.

It was a few minutes after noon at 2. December of last year, as Paulo Tridade suddenly, the tense, urgent voice of his fellow pilot Jeziel Barbosa de Moura, on hearing a crackling level of rattles-level radio.

"Paulo ," he said, "It looks like I lost a cylinder. There are oil leaks on the windshield. I'm going to land in Indepêndencia. "

Paulo , in the skies over the Amazon rain forest, 22 minutes flight time away, tried desperately to dissuade him: "no, you can't," he said. "There is no longer any runway there; it was abandoned 15 years ago. Aim for The River , the Parú, But try to land on the Water . "

Jeziel Barbosa de Moura, shortly before the take-off, But it was no use. "No, no, I have answered decided, to land, to Indepêndencia," Jeziel. "I can't do anything more. "

Then The Signal will Cut Out . Those were the Last Words , Paulo heard from his friend of 37 years. He turned in mid-air to find to try and Jeziel. But it was hopeless. Paulo ran low in one of the Amazon's sudden, terrible rain-storms, when the Light Aircraft will fly, beneath the towering black clouds, you have no vision at All .

The rain ended just as Paulo flew over Indepêndencia, a strip constructed to serve a long-abandoned gold mine, half swallowed-up again by The Jungle . But looking down, he could see no trace of the Plane .

Jeziel had been flying his single-engine Embraer air-taxi, registration PT-RDC, from the isolated Amazon Indian Village Matawaré, in the mountains of Tumucumaque National Park , in the vicinity of Brazil to the Northern border with French Guiana , to the mining town of Laranjal do Jarí, A Journey of around 1 hour and 45 minutes, he had made many times before.

On-Board Two groups of Amazon Indians from The Village , A Teacher by the name of Pantia Tiriyó with his wife Pansina and their three children, the youngest just three years Old - and an older woman, Sepi Akuriyó, with her son-in-law Jesaraya Tiriyó.

Two Days later, the Brazilian Air Force began to be involved with The Search , that the 128-hour flight through the Amazon search-and-rescue aircraft, Hercules transport aircraft and the Black Hawk helicopter. But it was suspended after Two Weeks without result.

Flavia Moura: "We feel abandoned", Since then the indigenous organisations have repeatedly appealed to the defence to organise the Ministry, that a ground search, as according to some previous disappear - But In Vain . This is in spite of new information from an eyewitness who said he saw a Plane flying low As If to land, on The Day of the PT-RDC came down.

Flavia Moura, The Pilot 's daughter, is desperate. "We feel abandoned. Totally," she says. "We cry Every Day , my brothers and me, begging for any help to continue The Search , But no one came, no one helped. Is it because they, the Indians, because they are Ordinary People that no one has offered help?"

These appeals received strong support from Brazil's Public Prosecutor 's office to take the threats of the Ministry of defence before the court, if it is not back to The Search .

But Alexandre Guimarães, the Federal attorney General in The State of Amapá, says the difficulty in finding PT-RDZ Failure presents a much more serious, long-standing government - the lack of Air Traffic Control in the Amazon and other remote parts of Brazil that acts disproportionately on its indigenous population.

PT-RDZ fly was secretly. But not by choice.

Most of the runways are not to be registered indigenous communities in the Amazon, because they do not meet the standards. And this does not mean that pilots Take Off officially, or the country of them. So, in order to transport for isolated communities, the pilots are obliged to file fake plans, give a wrong Starting Point or destination.

A small Plane Landing in Aldeia Baú, Para State, Brazil, of Course, makes it hard to know where to look, when a Plane goes down.

Adrian Young , the Netherlands-based aviation consultancy, to70, advises airports, airlines and governments around The World , said: "A regulatory system that requires, to falsify a pilot, flight schedules, basic information, is scandalous. It is uncertain, and in such a remote region, you can travel not just to deny people access to. "

the Majority of pilots talk about fear openly about The Situation , out of fear, your license can be terminated, if they admit lying to Air Traffic Control .

But , Paulo Nortes, said: "you have to fly, quiet, with sometimes a transponder is turned off, and the Air Traffic controllers, and the government really do not know about these flights. You are not being monitored by each Controller . "

And yet, as he says, flying in the Amazon can be very dangerous. "There are a few runways, which are like roller coasters... and you don't need to be aware of All the time, The Weather , to get in a heavy storm, because it plays with your aircraft As If it were a paper airplane, like a Toy . "

A thunderstorm over the Amazon-Indigenous-activist Cecília Apalai has to travel to lobby the government for the coming years were to upgrade, Start-and Landing runways, so that it can be licensed, twice for talks in the Capital , Brasilia.

"We are very concerned, because we are The Users of this transportation system," she says. "The country lanes need to be safer, not only for indigenous people themselves, But also for the employees of the government, the health and education services, the Railways, the boot and country, All the time. "

But so far there was no result - in spite of a court ruling airfields won Six Years ago by Alexandre Guimarães, update, which, according to the Civil aviation authority (ANAC) and other relevant bodies.

Cecília Apalai speak by radio to the helper, The Search for PT-RDC ", There are 249 runways, which are not regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority, and these strips in indigenous land," he says. "This is All the fault of those state bodies that have not yet performed their statutory duty to regular authorize these runways. "

This would cost a lot of money, But Cecília Apalai says it is important because the indigenous people have to travel are forced to in order to use cities of your rights as a Brazilian citizen.

pensioners are calling for The State pension, you must submit the job physically in the case of government, to prove once a year that you are still alive.

the roads are non-existent in most of the Amazon and river transportation is often not practicable, private chartered air taxis as PT-RDZ are often the only option, But they are very expensive. A return six-seater charter of Matawaré, the Starting Point of the damn flight, could in the Capital , Macapá cost of 10,000 Brazilian Real (about £2,000).

The runway in Laranjal, a mining community is registered - in contrast to the Matarawé Sepi, the older woman, the, PT-RDC, was on the way to collect their pension. It is thought to be The Last speaker in Matawaré, And One of The Last , anywhere, from your native Language , Akuriyó.

Friends and relatives of The Missing began their own search after the suspension of the Air Force mission. You had to walk for Eight Days from the nearest village, Bona, before they could establish a base camp in the vicinity of the Indepêndencia Landing strip, The Pilot mentioned in his Last Call . Then they fanned out methodically, Every Day for several weeks, hacking through the woods in difficult mountainous terrain

you can Find out to Leave more lists, in the Amazon, in order, on the BBC World Service

Eventually, at the end of January, you had to give up. Food Supplies - All wore on their backs, was nearly expired, And One of the researchers, The Father of Pansina Tiriyó, contracted malaria, had.

Pansina brother, Aksuni, followed the progress of The Mission , the researchers radioed in Every Day in the hostel, where he remains in Macapa.

He still hopes his sister is alive, But accepted that hopes are fading.

"We grew up together, we're about the same age, and she lived in the next house to me," he says. "So we were always talking, we were really close. I used to talk to her, play with her... and now, maybe, I'm going to My Sister , and I don't want to be that close to the person with me. "

Arinowari, a local organizer, ends said in a radio interview with The Search team of Flavia Moura, the daughter of The Pilot , Jeziel, you can't begin the grieving process, is found to be Plane . "I know this is a pain that will never heal," she says. "I can't see him, I can't bury him, I can't Say Goodbye . And I don't know if I see him again, One Day , or whether or not I'll never know what happened. "

amazon rainforest, brazil, long reads, air travel, aviation accidents and incidents

Source of news: bbc.com