Santo Domingo.- Intelligence agencies investigate how a "mysterious" aircraft took off from Higüero International Airport with fake registry and a flight plan initially to Port-au-Prince, but once in flight changed course toward South America, vanishing from radar screens.

the Cessna Centurion 210L is airplane, number 21059588 left Higüero Sunday night, using for its flight plan the registration of another craft, which is under repair in one of the airport’s hangars.

The agencies conducting the probe include the National Investigations Department (DNI), the Airport Security Corp, the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC) and the Immigration Agency, whose director Sigfrido Pared, who said they seek to determine the pilot’s name, possible passengers and how it managed to fly with forged documents.

IDAC Assistant director Santiago Rosa, quoted by news source diariolibre.com, said the Flight Norms Department heads the investigations, but didn’t provide details.  

A plane crash has been discarded.

The single-engine Cessna arrived at Santiago’s Cibao International Airport on January 27, from Miami’s Opa Locka airport, with the registry N4688Q, but upon arriving at Higüero an IDAC inspector’s routine check uncovered that its pilot was a young man of Colombian nationality with a student pilot license.