BBC documentary maker goes missing in search of indigenous tribe

While attempting to film a documentary about a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea, a British explorer’s family is fearing the worst after he missed his pick up out of the jungle.

Benedict Allen, 57, set out alone in the jungle three weeks ago with neither a satellite phone nor a GPS in an effort to find a tribe of indigenous people he’d discovered roughly 30 years ago. His hope was to film an update on their lives for the BBC. Although he warned family and followers that he might be out of communication for quite some time, his family has started to worry after he missed a flight to Hong Kong to deliver a speech at the Royal Geographical Society on Tuesday.

“He never caught the plane and that is very out of character for him really because he has it all organised,” his older sister, Katie Pestille told The Daily Mail. “He was going with a local guide to a remote part of Papua New Guinea to try to track down this tribe that he had been with 20 or 30 years ago to reconnect with them. I have not heard from him in about three weeks and I was expecting something from him on Sunday or Monday and then I got an email from my sister-in-law yesterday saying he had not got on his flight.”

According to the Telegraph, Allen, a father of three, was attempting to track down the Yaifo tribe, one of the few left on Earth not to have regular contact with the outside world.

"Last time, the Yaifo 'greeted' me with a terrifying show of strength, an energetic dance featuring their bows and arrows," he said in a September blog post outlining his plans. "On this occasion who knows if the Yaifo will do the same, or run off, or be wearing jeans and T shirts traded eons ago from the old mission station.”

While the family isn’t necessarily worried that the Yaifo have done something nefarious with Allen, given his past relationship with them, there are other dangers in the wild, such as loggers and drug runners, that may be at play.

Before setting off on his journey, Allen tweeted a message to the world suggesting they not worry about his whereabouts. However, his family feels as though his grace period of time is up.

“Marching off to Heathrow. I may be some time (don’t try to rescue me, please - where I’m going in PNG you won’t ever find me you know…)"

This isn’t the first time that Allen has been lost in the wild. The explorer, whose career spans six TV series for the BBC, was previously out of communication for three months. At one point, he even had to eat his own dog in order to survive.

Although Allen reportedly has the skills to survive in the wild for this long, the helicopter pilot who initially dropped him off as well as a guide who has worked with Allen in the past have launched search efforts, according to the BBC.