Paqui was waiting for his beloved cousin, Isabel, in Beas de Segura to enjoy a family weekend, with a good meal and anecdotes in this village of Jaen located in the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park. But the weekend plan turned into a nightmare because the plane Isabel was flying on with her husband, Alfonso, disappeared. “The family is having a bad time“, emphasizes Paqui to EL ESPAÑOL.
“We look for them in any corner of the mountain, but it’s very big“. This natural park has become a kind of Bermuda Triangle which engulfed the small plane.
According to As the hours and days pass, the feeling of anguish increases among the relatives of the missing, in the absence of news on the fate of the missing person. ultralight, Savannah ULM model for two peoplein which were flying Alfonso, a 68-year-old retired firefighter, and his wife, Isabel, a 65-year-old guard, who is on the staff of the Virgen de la Arrixaca hospital in Murcia.
“I was waiting for my cousin to have a family weekend“, deplores Paqui. The couple took off on Friday October 18, at 8:30 a.m., from the Totana aerodrome, bound for the El Cornicabral facilities in Beas de Segura where they had reserved a hangar to store the plane.
– Were you able to talk to them while they were flying to Jaén?
– Paqui: No, no family member was able to speak to them. There was no communication. The only communications were with the Beas de Segura control tower and they were told they were going to be diverted due to weather conditions. That’s it. They gave no idea where they were going and that’s the problem. We have no clue.
Search continues for missing couple on small plane
Nothing suggested that this flight would end with the disappearance of this married couple in their sixties because they had already gone to Beas de Segura on other occasions, to visit Isabel’s cousin who changed her native Murcia to Jaén, after getting married. In fact, this guardian from La Arrixaca has even published several videos on her Facebook account where she jokingly appears on the plane, kissing her husband and enjoying the aerial views of Aledo Castle.
Additionally, Paqui emphasizes that Alfonso is an experienced driver. “He is a temperate and expert person: that’s what’s strange. It’s very strange.” But the sad reality is that this Monday took over the fourth day of marriage search, to which Paqui joined for another day: “Since Friday, raids have taken place from Nerpio to Pontones and throughout the Sierra del Segura. I am looking for them too.”
A spokesperson for the Civil Guard told EL ESPAÑOL that this Monday “Air Force resources were incorporated” into the operation. “There are six Seprona patrol cars and motorcycles to cross the roads which, due to their narrowness, are inaccessible to off-road vehicles.” The agents of the Armed Institute travel on foot and by car, without rest, kilometers and kilometers of the immense Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park. From dawn to dusk. Every hour is vital.
They are also raking it from the air with a helicopter and with the resources of the Andalusian Forest Fire Extinguishing Service (Infoca). “The search area is very wide because it borders Albacete and Granada.” The investigations began 84 kilometers from the El Cornicabral aerodrome, in Beas de Segura, where the couple should have landed. “Peal de Becerro is the point where the missing people made their last communication of the plane”, according to the Civil Guard.
The Civil Guard helicopter searches for the couple’s plane in the Sierra de Cazorla.
Another point of interest is the area around the Tranco reservoir because a radar or antenna detected the couple’s plane and according to a Civil Guard agent: “In this area, sent a WhatsApp warning that the top of the mountain range had poor visibility”. One of the problems that make the search difficult are the characteristics of the Savannah ULM in which Alfonso and Isabel flew, since being green and brown, camouflage type, it blends into the vegetation of the Cazorla, Segura and Las Natural Park Villas. .
The assumption under which the operation works is that the retired firefighter who was at the controls of the plane was able to land. Those close to Isabel and Alfonso cling to this theory like a hot nail. “Alfonso was a firefighter, he has experience in rescues, He has been a light aircraft pilot for forty years and has taken forced landing courses.“, according to a hopeful family member.
Isabel’s three children and Alfonso’s two children participated in the research efforts, united in adversity, as they were in the happiness of their respective parents, when they began living together and said ‘yes, I want’ again, in second marriage. get married at the courthouse. She, 65, is known for her talkative nature, and he, 68, is very popular with the Murcia firefighters.
One of the last clues places the couple’s plane between Santiago de la Espada and Nerpio, because some hunters claim to have seen a plane flying over the Murillo area last Friday. Additionally, geolocation of the couple’s cell phones suggests they may have attempted a crash landing in Siles. “I believe Alfonso and Isabel are alive somewhere“, underlines this relative. “He is a person who acts calmly in adverse situations and I doubt that he will go to the Tranco swamp.”
