From: AsiaOne
BRASILIA, Nov 1, 2009 (AFP) - The Brazilian Air Force Sunday said it found the body of a second person who died from a plane crash last week in the Amazon rainforest that saw nine survivors rescued by indigenous tribesmen.
The body of one of the four crew members of the C-98 Caravan, single-propeller military transport plane was found near the crash site, dispelling assumptions the man had wandered off searching for help when he went
missing after the plane crash-landed in a river.
The remains of the other person who died in Thursday's accident were found Saturday trapped inside the wreckage. He was one of seven National Health Foundation (FUNASA) officials on an immunization campaign in indigenous communities in northwestern Brazil's Javari Valley near the Peruvian border.
Six of the FUNASA team and three crew members were rescued after the plane was found by members of the Matis, a tiny tribe of some 300 people first contacted by modern Brazilian officials in the 1970s.
After losing power, the pilot crash-landed the plane on the Itui river, in a remote jungle area between the Matis village of Aurelio and another tribe's village, said the air force.
The survivors of the flight from the town of Cruzeiro do Sul to the town of Tabatinga were transported by helicopter back to Cruzeiro do Sul, and "they are doing well," the air force said on Friday.
Aviation experts said the C-98 Caravan is a slow-flying aircraft built in a way that would likely allow passengers and crew to survive if there was an emergency landing.
Eight aircraft had been scouring the rainforest for the missing plane, but the improbable rescue in one of the world's most remote regions was credited to the Matis.