A ZIMBABWE Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) aircraft with two rangers and a pilot has been missing since Friday after being dispatched to conduct an aerial survey in the Zambezi Valley, it has emerged.<\/p>\n
Nokuthaba Dlamini<\/p>\n
The two rangers and a pilot were conducting an aerial survey between Chirundu and the greater Zambezi Valley when the aircraft disappeared.<\/p>\n
Tinashe Farawo, the ZimParks spokesperson, confirmed the incident and said it is under investigation.<\/p>\n
Farawo said a thorough search involving helicopters and other smaller aircraft has been going on since it was discovered on Friday afternoon that the crew had not returned to base.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rangers were doing aerial survey within the parks in that area,\u201d he told TheNewsHawks.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now I don\u2019t have finer details regarding other things, but it\u2019s a matter that is still under investigation and a search operation is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A ZimParks official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the missing rangers and pilot had not been reachable on mobile phone, raising fears the plane could have crashed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started panicking when they failed to return to base as scheduled and we immediately knew something was wrong,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to contact their families and all of them said they had not heard from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir phone numbers are unreachable, so since Friday we have been conducting thorough searches between Chirundu and Zambezi Valley areas where they were tasked to operate from.\u201d<\/p>\n
A ZimParks ranger said there are fears the aircraft could have crashed in a mountainous area difficult to access.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very confusing because if there is mist or heavy rain, we would assume that they crashed due to bad weather, but the sky was clear,\u201d the ranger said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now think that their plane developed a technical problem and they crashed,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have searched around the mountains and thick forest but we could not locate them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have to see how day three ends.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they lost the route and landed where there was no mobile phone network coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also fears the ZimParks aircraft may have crashed on the Zambian side of the rugged border.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A ZIMBABWE Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) aircraft with two rangers and a pilot has been missing since Friday after being dispatched to conduct an aerial survey in the Zambezi Valley, it has emerged. Nokuthaba Dlamini The two rangers and a pilot were conducting an aerial survey between Chirundu and the greater Zambezi Valley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":29337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[700],"class_list":{"0":"post-29335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-zimparks"},"yoast_head":"\n