Members of the Croatian national emergency service, police and workers of the Plitvice Lakes National Park where the plane with two persons on board is believed to have crashed, are searching the area.
One group of rescue workers is combing a wider area of the town of Rakovica where a signal of a mobile phone of one of the missing persons was detected yesterday. Following statements by some witnesses, the other group is combing a wider area of the town of Slunj. Helicopters are also engaged in the operation.
Thick forests with high trees as well as a fear that some of the said areas may be infested with land mines have rendered the search more difficult.
The missing plane was one in a group of a total of eight ultra-light aircraft which took off in Hungary flying towards the Croatian island of Brac on Friday evening. Dense fog and unfavourable weather conditions in Croatia prevented them from reaching their final destination. One of those planes crashed at the Pltivice Lakes area when it hit a hill, killing two people on board. One went missing, while five planes made emergency landings at the Zemunik Airport near coastal city of Zadar, and one had to land in the town of Drnis in the hinterland of Split. The planes carried Hungarian business people and members of their families who intended to spend a weekend on the island of Brac.