They have been going on for several hours research for an ultralight aircraft left Capo d’Orlando, in the province of Messina, and headed for Sibari, in the province of Cosenza: it would have disappeared along the Cosenza Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Fuscaldo area, with two people on board. This is a Tecnam P2008 two-seat high-wing, departed on Sunday at 9.30, from the Capo d’Orlando airfield runway, managed by the town’s Volo Club, in the Tavola Grande district. The two people on board, Carlo Arnulfo, a 64-year-old lawyer resident in Rome, driving the two-seater, and Angela Buccico, a 55-year-old colleague, resident in Matera, would both be expert pilots.
What happened
The two-seater aircraft, piloted by Arnulfo and with his partner on board, should have reached Sibari between 10.30 and 11 in the morning, after taking off from Capo d’Orlando, but it never arrived.
The alarm went off last nightAugust 16, after the family members of the two people on board reported it. The last contact was at 10.30 on Sunday morning, when a photo of the island of Stromboli was sent from the plane to a relative.
Following the families’ report, the Prefecture’s search plan for missing persons was launched.
The search for the missing ultralight in Calabria: how to find a plane
The Fire Brigade of the Cosenza Command is searching the area between Fuscaldo and Falconara Albanese, up to the mountainous hinterland, with helicopter and drones: the police have established a search area using telephone cells (the last cells connected to the two missing people appear to be those between Fiumefreddo and Fuscaldo) and are using IMSI Catcher technologiescapable of identifying and triangulating the position of cell phones even in the absence of ordinary network coverage.
Staff from the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPA) enabled to remotely pilot drones, a helicopter from the Salerno Fire Brigade and a SAR (Search and Rescue) version helicopter also intervened to support the search.
According to the rescuers, it is unlikely that the plane could have ended up in the sea: in fact, these aircraft usually travel close to the coast and swimmers should therefore have noticed a possible fall and landing. However, searches continue at sea and search teams are also active on land.
