A Peruvian airliner carrying 46 people, including eight children, disappeared Thursday amid cloud-covered mountains in the Amazon jungle. Heavy rain hampered the search effort.
Peru’s air force halted helicopter missions to find the plane late in the afternoon, and weather forecasts called for more rain in the next 24 hours.
“The air search has been suspended due to rain. We are focusing on organizing ground teams to send out,” said Avelino Flores, a Civil Defense official in Luyo, the village closest to the area where the plane was believed to have gone down.
The area was at least six hours away by foot, over difficult terrain.
TANS Airline Flight 222 was just a few minutes from landing in Chachapoyas, a city in the jungle-covered mountains 400 miles north of Lima, when radio contact was lost.
