The Guyana De­fence Force (GDF) he­li­copter that went down on Wednes­day was spot­ted Thurs­day morn­ing and a res­cue team was be­ing in­sert­ed in­to the moun­tain­ous and forest­ed area, the de­fence force said in a state­ment.

“The crash site where a Guyana De­fence Force Bell 412 he­li­copter went down yes­ter­day, has been pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fied and the air­craft spot­ted.

“Search and res­cue teams have al­so re­port­ed pos­i­tive signs of life on the scene. Troops are be­ing rap­pelled to the ex­act site lo­ca­tion,” the GDF said.

A top mil­i­tary of­fi­cer would on­ly say “I re­main op­ti­mistic” about the sev­en per­sons aboard. “They found the area,” the of­fi­cial told De­mer­ara Waves On­line News when asked whether the oc­cu­pants were seen mov­ing.

The GDF is ex­pect­ed to is­sue a re­lease short­ly.

Pi­lot­ed by vet­er­an avi­a­tor of 40 years, Lieu­tenant Colonel Mike Charles, the Bell 412 he­li­copter went down about 30 miles east of Arau near the Guyana bor­der with Venezuela.

In ad­di­tion to the pi­lot, Lieu­tenant Colonel Michael Charles, a vet­er­an avi­a­tor with 40 years ex­pe­ri­ence, the oth­er oc­cu­pants were Com­mand­ing Of­fi­cer of the 1st In­fantry Bat­tal­ion, Colonel Michael Sha­houd, Com­mand­ing; Re­tired Brigadier Gary Beat­on, Lieu­tenant Colonel Sean Wel­come, Staff Sergeant Ja­son Khan, Lieu­tenant Colonel An­dio Michael Craw­ford and Cor­po­ral, Dwayne Jack­son

GDF Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Omar Khan on Wednes­day evening said the he­li­copter, bear­ing reg­is­tra­tion mark­ing 8R-AYA, was on a com­mand mis­sion un­der the com­mand of Colonel Sha­houd to “vis­it our troops on the west­ern bor­der.” He said the air­craft land­ed at Bul­let Creek and re­fu­eled and short­ly af­ter take-off com­mu­ni­ca­tion con­tact was lost, and an Emer­gency Lo­ca­tor Trans­mit­ter (ELT) sig­nal was trig­gered. “On re­ceipt of that ELT sig­nal, it ac­ti­vat­ed our analy­sis We at­tempt­ed to make con­tact with air­craft and no com­mu­ni­ca­tion was ob­tained,” he said.