Missing Plane!!! Please Pray!!

Update!: I have spoken to Ronnie and also to Bob's mom this morning. They don't have much more information than is listed below, but are so very grateful for every single prayer going up on behalf of those on the plane and their families. Ronnie is such a sweet soul and he is very much worried about his dad. I can't even begin to imagine!! Bob also has another son, Robbie, who is Ronnie's twin brother. Please continue to lift all involved up in your prayers!


Adventist missionary pilot Robert Norton with his wife Neiba lead out the Adventist Medical Aviation based in Gran Sabana, Venezuela. Their plane went missing in southeastern Venezuela Monday, February 16. [photo courtesy AMA]

For those of you who are local, this is Ronnie, who I worked with at VZW's dad! His family lives on the far north end of our mountain. Bob and his wife came and shared a video with our youth a few years ago and told us about the work they were doing in Venezuela. He is one of the kindest, most soft spoken men I have ever met! Please join me as I pray for these and their families!

In Venezuela, Adventists continue search for missing medical plane

National aviation authority ceases search after 72 hours; church hiring rescue service

February 19, 2009 Gran Sabana, Bolivar, Venezuela

Libna Stevens/ANN

Seventh-day Adventists continue to search for a missing medical missionary plane, which disappeared Monday, February 16 in the jungles of La Gran Sabana, a vast southeastern region in Venezuela.

The Cessna 182N plane piloted by Robert Norton, who volunteers for Adventist Medical Aviation (AMA) in Venezuela, is believed to have hit turbulent weather after taking off from the community of Carun en route to the community of Bethel.

Also in the plane were six passengers: Neiba Norton, wife of the pilot; Gladis Zerpa, an Adventist teacher; a woman accompanying a 14-year-old and a woman traveling with her young son.

"Our church is really distraught about the news of this tragedy," said Rodolfo Escobar, Communication director for the church in Venezuela.

Escobar said church members in Gran Sabana began searching for the missing plane as soon as they heard the news. The National Civil Aviation Institute, along with several air rescue and non-government organizations, immediately began their search but stopped after 72 hours.

The church has continued today to search the area by contracting air rescue organizations.

Escobar said there were several accounts from villagers in the adjacent areas of Carun who heard the plane's engines go silent at some point during the stormy weather.

"We have formed groups to search in the air and several more groups on foot to scour the region where the plane communication was last heard," Escobar said.

Norton, the pilot, has more than 20 years of flying experience. For the last eight years, he has served as director of AMA Venezuela, which is based on the campus of La Gran Sabana Adventist School in Santa Elena de Uairén in Bolivar. His wife Neiba is a registered nurse and works with indigenous people in the region.

The AMA is an international project established about 12 years ago. AMA provides emergency medical transportation and evangelistic support to dozens of otherwise inaccessible villages.

Thank you, Rita, for letting me know about this!