Chile on Monday turned to the powers of a psychic to find the bodies of 17 people still missing after a military plane crash near the remote Robinson Crusoe Island in the Pacific Ocean.
“We’re are working with a person who is on one of the [search] boats,” Chilean Minister of National Defense Andres Allamand told national Chilean TV in response to a question of whether a medium was taking part in recovery efforts.
“Not only are we using all of our technological capabilities, but also all the human and superhuman abilities that may exist,” he said.
Allamand, who has been on the island since Saturday, had said earlier, however, to lower expectations that all the victims’ bodies would be recovered.
The Chilean government has organized a huge search in waters off the island where the plane went down late on Friday carrying 21 people.
On Sunday, officials declared two days of national mourning, while only four bodies and a small amount of aircraft debris have been found so far.
The air force plane had made two abortive attempts to land at Robinson Crusoe before radio contact was lost.
The victims included one of the country’s best-known television personalities.
Thousands gathered at state broadcaster TVN to remember daily morning talk show host Felipe Camiroaga, who was traveling to the island with a crew to report on reconstruction efforts after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused devastation last year.
Robinson Crusoe is the main island of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, which lies about 700km west of the South American coastline.
The Chilean Navy is using sonar equipment to try to locate the fuselage of the aircraft, where officials believe may hold the remaining crash victims.
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