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Benedict Allen Andy Butterton via PA Images

'It's ghastly': UK explorer Benedict Allen missing in Papua New Guinea jungle

Benedict Allen was travelling alone to try to find the reclusive Yaifo tribe.

A SEARCH IS underway for British explorer Benedict Allen who has gone missing in the jungle of Papua New Guinea during an expedition for a BBC documentary.

Allen (57) was travelling alone to try to find the Yaifo tribe, one of the few remaining tribes in the world who have zero contact with the outside world, when he went missing.

He was expected to travel back to the capital of Port Moresby by Sunday. However, his sister has said she was expecting to hear from him by Monday but has received no contact and that he failed to take his flight to Hong Kong.

A helicopter pilot who dropped Allen off in the jungle a number of weeks ago is currently trying to find him, according to the BBC.

The BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner, who had travelled to Papua New Guinea with Allen, said he understood the pilot was tracking Allen’s route from his starting point in a remote area called Bisoria.
https://twitter.com/FrankRGardner/status/930755308523278338

Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, Allen’s sister, Katie Pestille, said it was “out of character” for him to miss his scheduled flight.

“It’s ghastly,” she said.

“For everybody else, it’s very exciting – all the expeditions and all the things he does, but for his sister and his wife, it’s more of a worry.”

Allen has previously travelled across the Amazon Basin and participated in a six-week male-only initiation ceremony where crocodile marks were carved onto his body.

He has also written a number of books on exploration and filmed his adventures on BBC documentaries.
https://twitter.com/benedictallen/status/918029305581412352

‘I may be some time’ 

Allen has a website in which he documents some of his adventures through blog posts.

The latest entry on his blog is titled: “I may be some time…”

In it, he writes about the Yaifo tribe and notes that no outside has made the journey to visit them since the journey he made 30 years ago.

“In October, I’m hiring a helicopter to drop me off at the abandoned mission station, Bisorio – a forlorn place that was featured briefly on the BBC programme. If – and only if – it seems ethical, I’ll try to assemble a small party, as I did all those years ago, and head off up-slope into the mists to visit the Yaifo in their remote abode,” he wrote.

He said that it was somewhat worrying that he has no obvious means of returning to the “outside world”.

Either I must paddle down river for a week or so – or enlist the help of the Yaifo, as I did last time; together we managed to achieve the only recorded crossing of the Central Range. So, if this website or my Twitter account falls more than usually silent, I’m due back mid November.
So, don’t bother to call or text. Just like the good old days, I won’t be taking a sat phone, GPS or companion. Or anything much else. Because this is how I do my journeys of exploration. I grow older but not wiser, it seems…

Read: Coverage of homelessness crisis ‘damaging to Ireland’s reputation’ – minister

More: A tumultuous 24 hours: What’s been happening in Zimbabwe, and what’s next

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39 Comments
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    Mute Radovan Karadzic
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    Mar 12th 2024, 4:48 PM

    Someone with an invisible passport

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    Mute tara tevlin
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:07 PM

    @Radovan Karadzic: brilliant

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    Mute Ian
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:38 PM

    @Radovan Karadzic: clown

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    Mute Gearoid MacEachaidh
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:51 PM

    @Radovan Karadzic: on a flight from Abu Dhabi? Unlikely.

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    Mute Wolfgang Bonow
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    Mar 12th 2024, 6:32 PM

    @Radovan Karadzic: If you would have spent 60 seconds on Google you would have known that a lot of international flights stop in Abu Dhabi.
    Most (all?) Ireland to Australia flights do so.
    I’m not Irish and according to your name, you’re not either, most likely from Serbia.
    Bold comment from someone (potentially) coming from a country which is for 10 years in the EU?

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    Mute brian madden
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    Mar 12th 2024, 6:51 PM

    @Wolfgang Bonow: he has multiple accounts. He is unfortunately irish.

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    Mute Wolfgang Bonow
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    Mar 12th 2024, 8:13 PM

    @brian madden: This wouldn’t surprise me. Posting BS under one account and complaining under another why comments are closed.
    It’s like in Kindergarten.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:45 PM

    @brian madden: Quite unfortunate tbf!!

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:47 PM

    @Wolfgang Bonow: If they are given a pass by all the reasonable who could possibly counter their BS and get comments closed, why wouldn’t they, they see it as a win coz they force folks to treat them in a way they can then lament, the right wing playbook!

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    Mute Mr G Pickett
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    Mar 12th 2024, 4:46 PM

    Will they please lock down the country ASAP just like they did for the runny nose pandemic

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:58 PM

    @Mr G Pickett: It’s funny that you think you’re funny ngl! I am amused!

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    Mute Name not provided
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    Mar 12th 2024, 11:06 PM

    @Mr G Pickett: we don’t have to because thankfully the vast majority of us are vaccinated against measles. A very effective vaccine against a highly contagious and dangerous disease. Unfortunately a few hippies and WEF-obsessed clowns refuse to get vaccinated, hence why the measles spike.

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    Mute Tom Mc Donnell
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    Mar 12th 2024, 4:54 PM

    Surely the airline would have a list of passengers

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    Mute Cathy Cagney
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:41 PM

    @Tom Mc Donnell: Yes, but with GDPR, the airline may need to contact each passenger individually to get their consent before releasing their information

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    Mute Peter Cummins
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    Mar 12th 2024, 7:35 PM

    @Cathy Cagney: Only the one plane tho. Few mins a call….a day of work for a few people??

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Mar 12th 2024, 4:55 PM

    I’m just hoping no one with Ebola Virus turns up at Dublin Airport!

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Mar 12th 2024, 6:17 PM

    @Brian Hunt: High lethality rate, but not very contagious.

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    Mute Gearoid MacEachaidh
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    Mar 12th 2024, 6:24 PM

    @Brian Hunt: the good thing about Ebola is symptoms appear quickly and in most cases severely. Easy to spot and contain. There are probably worse viruses out there that we haven’t come across yet.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:49 PM

    @Brian Hunt: Or are you just fear-mongering? Hard to know!

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Mar 12th 2024, 10:36 PM

    @Chutes: Then try harder!

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 10:58 PM

    @Brian Hunt: At what exactly? Knowing? Sure though if I’m honest, hard to know where to begin trying to understand such fkwittery ngl. I’ll try tho just for you!

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Mar 12th 2024, 11:55 PM

    @Chutes: I couldn’t care less about you think, you’re just another virtue signalling member of the Holier-Than-Thou Brigade!

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    Mute Gerard Carey
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:17 PM

    Wasn’t that long ago we couldn’t get into Tesco without a muzzle and a green light.
    The good ole days.

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    Mute damien leen
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    Mar 12th 2024, 6:54 PM

    @Gerard Carey: Ah yes good times…at one stage to go for a drink you had to show U were vaccinated…show ID..Give your address & phone number and then be told to be out by 8…Good times indeed, brilliantly handled.
    Funny how no goverment on this old blue planet had a plan in place for such an event…not like we didn’t have scares like, Bird flu, Sars….mad cow disease… ebola…Hmmmm…some might say our world governments were a wee bit negligent .

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    Mute Diarmuid Hunt
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    Mar 12th 2024, 7:35 PM

    @Gerard Carey: A muzzle? Isn’t that hyperbole at its finest!

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    Mute Gerard Carey
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:04 PM

    @Diarmuid Hunt: Hyperbole at its finest, indeed.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:51 PM

    @Gerard Carey: Be honest, did ya have to look up ‘hyperbole’ before you replied? ;)

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    Mute alan wallace
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:22 PM

    No wonder the comments section is closed on most articles with all the alt-right conspiracy nutters posting on here.

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    Mute James Reardon
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:36 PM

    @alan wallace: you could say the same for “offended by everything” left.

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    Mute Ian
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:39 PM

    @alan wallace: Utter lunatics

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    Mute damien leen
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    Mar 12th 2024, 6:56 PM

    @alan wallace: you say conspiracy nutters, guess thats the easiest way for you to label people who asked questions that needed to & still need to be asked about the fiasco that was the handling of Covid.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:35 PM

    @alan wallace: Until folks are willing to take them on it will continue, it’s the same as complaining about governance, until you stand they will continue to fk you!

    As the Irish love to say, ‘beatings will continue until morale improves’. They will for as long as you are willing to accept the beatings. Maybe the English made us so willing to accept our lot over the many generations, who knows eh?

    Until reasonable folks come together, those that would divide us will continue to stupidly easily because they are motivated, organised and together in their efforts. It’s remarkably simple to stop them but it takes collective action.

    At least you’ve noticed. Now all you need is the next single step, whatever that may be to you, doesn’t need to be here but you know you need to do something, clearly evidenced by your comment. There are many more who would join you in whatever form your resistance may take. There is so much to resist these days. Try here, try somewhere!

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 9:37 PM

    @damien leen: Who exactly have you personally asked questions of and I don’t mean someone down the pub after hours?

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    Mute Setanta O'Toole
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    Mar 12th 2024, 11:06 PM

    @James Reardon: the ‘offended by everything left’ jibe doesn’t exactly ring true when it mostly used by people who would protest against the opening of an envelope if they had nothing left to rail against.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 11:32 PM

    @Setanta O’Toole: @James Reardon clearly has difficulties with the concept of truth! Stop picking on him like the radical leftie you are, it’s no wonder all those strong men are so afraid kappa!

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    Mute Lisa O'Connor
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:01 PM

    How about isolating sick people instead of allowing them in schools, work and travelling?

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    Mute Susan Walsh
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    Mar 13th 2024, 9:42 AM

    @Lisa O’Connor: Unfortunately some diseases, like measles, the symptoms aren’t always obvious while the person is still contagious. The rash (most commonly known & recognised symptom) can appear 7 days after a person becomes infectious. So it’s hard to lock anyone down when they don’t have any symptoms.

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    Mute Mick Hanna
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:25 PM

    Is there anything to be said for another lock down?

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    Mute Steve
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    Mar 12th 2024, 7:03 PM

    What’s the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi?
    The people in Dubai don’t like the Flintstones, but the people in Abu Dhabi do.
    I know, I know, sorry!

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    Mute Chutes
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    Mar 12th 2024, 10:55 PM

    @Steve: lol, at least ur sorry! :)

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    Mute Barry Hickey
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    Mar 12th 2024, 4:55 PM

    Sunday was 10th March.

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    Mute Hugh Flahive
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    Mar 12th 2024, 5:03 PM

    Was Sunday not the 10th March??

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    Mute Steve Bradshaw
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    Mar 12th 2024, 7:29 PM

    That’s my joke, must be a Steve thing….

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