Police said yesterday they had found no drugs at the site of the Cayman Brac light-plane crash on Sunday night, but were treating the accident as ‘a suspicious incident”.

Investigations were continuing as officers trace the next-of-kin of the two men found in the wreckage, while a two-member team from Britain’s Air Accident Investigation Branch arrived on yesterday’s British Airways flight, scheduled to tour the crash site on the Bluff this morning.

“It occurred just before 11pm on Sunday,” Chief Inspector Raymond Christian told iNews Cayman yesterday, correcting an earlier statement saying the accident had occurred at 11:45pm.

“We can only presume the reason for landing was to refuel,” he said, but acknowledged that questions remained. Mr Christian visited the site just after the crash.

The two-seater Cessna 210, he said, “had additional fuel containers on board,” 10 60-litre drums, with a 320-US- gallon capacity.

“Not all were filled with fuel, though.” he said. “Some were smashed up, and it’s possible they were used for fuel,” but he suggested other cargo may have been carried. “No drugs were found,” however, he said.

An official police statement yesterday afternoon repeated the claim that no drugs had been found, but did not elaborate, saying only “we cannot speculate at this time as to why the plane was in our jurisdiction.

“However,” it went on, “a full investigation is under way looking into all of the circumstances. The RCIPS is engaged in scene preservation and officers commenced a full search of the area, supported by customs colleagues, at 6am [Tuesday] morning.”

Aiding police, the Cayman Islands Airports Authority, which does not normally handle out-of-hours, non-airport-related accidents, issued a formal statement on Monday, saying police had dispatched a helicopter and identified the remains of one Mexican and one Colombian at the site.

Nicoela McCoy, spokesperson and director of commercial affairs, regulation and administration for the Civil Aviation Administration of the Cayman Islands said yesterday “The CAACI is collaborating with the Aircraft Investigation Manager and the RCIPS regarding the aircraft accident that occurred on Cayman Brac overnight on Sunday night.

“The UK Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch has dispatched two representatives who will lead the investigation into the cause of the accident and develop a consequent accident report. As this is an on-going investigation there is no further comment at this time.” She declined to elaborate.

RCIPS investigator Stephen Fitzgerald, at the site yesterday afternoon, said officers were unable to identify the victims further because “we just don’t know who they are. Just because you have a name on a passport doesn’t mean you know.”

He said ‘there was no evidence they were going to refuel because it‘s not an appropriate landing spot,” but, pending further enquiries,  was unable to say why the fuel drums were on board.

“We don’t know, we are looking for the why and when. It’s one of the most difficult things to investigate an aircraft when you don’t know where it took off from or where it  was going. It is a jigsaw to put together.”

He acknowledged, however, that police “Were dealing with it as a suspicious incident”.

Additional reporting by Kathleen Bodden-Harris.