Original version

BBC World Service Online

Assignment

Factual

Investigations and journeys into the heart of global events from BBC correspondents.

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

Assignment: Abandoned in the Amazon

Documentaries

News

Jeziel with plane

14/03/2019 GMT

Abandoned in the Amazon

BBC World Service - Assignment, Abandoned in the Amazon

The dangers of flying in the great wilderness of the Brazilian rainforest

The dangers of flying in the great wilderness of the Brazilian rainforest - where flights may be clandestine, the authorities unhelpful and flight plans nonexistent.

When a light aircraft carrying two families from local Indian tribes disappeared over the Amazon recently, relatives scoured the rainforest for weeks, until hunger and illness forced them to give up.

Why did the Brazilian authorities ignore appeals for an official, properly-resourced ground search? And why was there no flight plan to indicate where the plane might have gone? 

Tim Whewell reports on the dangers of flying in the world’s greatest remaining wilderness - where most flights are clandestine – and the fears of indigenous communities that the government is increasingly indifferent to their needs.

(Image: Before the tragedy - Jeziel Barbosa de Moura, pilot of the vanished plane, minutes before he took off on the doomed flight. Credit: Family archive)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Assignment

Abandoned in the Amazon

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service