Скачать или смотреть Italian envoy comments on search for Missonifashion boss' missing plane

(9 Jan 2013) SHOTLIST
Los Roques, Venezuela
1. Various aerials of sea during search over Los Roques
Caracas, Venezuela
2. Set up of Italian Ambassador in Venezuela Paolo Serti
3. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Paolo Serti, Italian Ambassador in Venezuela:
"It's a difficult situation, a very complicated natural environment, we have to recognise that, without a doubt. These are very small planes, which have crashed into the water, an impact where they are completely lost to sight, completely destroyed. And it's very difficult, even from the vantage point of an overflight from 200 or 300 meters to survey the surface, a wide area and maintain a focused search. It's very difficult to recognise pieces."
4. Mid of Serti's hands
5. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Paolo Serti, Italian Ambassador in Venezuela:
"We have to maintain hope to the last moment to find these men and women who were involved (in the accident) alive. We are working towards this until the search is called off. Obviously, with each day that goes by, the hope diminishes a little."
6. Wide of Serti sitting at desk
Los Roques, Venezuela
7. Wide of sign reading: (Spanish) "Welcome to Los Roques"
8. Various of beach at Los Roques
STORYLINE
Italy's Ambassador to Venezuela said on Tuesday the massive search and rescue operation for Italian fashion executive Vittorio Missoni and other five people will continue until the wreckage or the survivors of the presumed plane crash are located.
"We have to maintain hope up to the last moment to find these men and women who were involved (in the accident) alive. We are working towards this until the search is called off," said Paolo Serti, Italian Ambassador to Venezuela during an interview in Caracas.
"Obviously, with each day that goes by, the hope diminishes a little," he added.
Serti acknowledged however the wreckage or bodies may never be found, pointing out that a similar tragedy occurred in 2008, in which a small plane carrying 14 people, including 8 Italians flying from the Los Roques Islands to the mainland has not been found to this day.
Some 400 Venezuelan and Italians are scouring the waters between the island atoll and the mainland where the plane was presumed to have gone down.
Serti says the conditions make the search in these waters particularly difficult.
"It's a difficult situation, a very complicated natural environment, we have to recognise that, without a doubt," said Serti.
Serti said in cases where planes crash into the water they are usually completely lost on impact.
"It's very difficult, even from the vantage point of an overfly from 200 or 300 meters to survey the surface, a wide area and maintain a focused search. It's very difficult to recognise pieces," he added.
Italy is sending a small contingent of search and rescue experts to Venezuela to assist in the search for the missing fashion house heir and his travelling companions.
The team is due to arrive in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on Wednesday.
Venezuelan authorities have said the twin-engine plane had enough fuel on board for a three-hour flight when it took off on Friday morning from Venezuela's Los Roques islands, where the group had been vacationing.
The flight was supposed to take 42 minutes, but the civil aviation agency said the authorities declared an alert after the plane didn't make contact with the control tower at the Caracas airport.
The government said in its statement on Sunday that planes and helicopters were searching a swath of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square kilometres) off the archipelago.
The islands are popular for scuba diving, white beaches and coral reefs.


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