Chilean Air Force finds lost plane debris, 38 people feared dead

Debris from a missing Hercules transport plane with 38 people aboard has been found in the sea between South America and the Antarctic, Chile's air force says.

A file shot of a C-130 military transport plane arriving at Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago de Chile. Source: EFE

The Chilean Air Force says it has located debris believed to be from a cargo plane that crashed this week with 38 people aboard over a remote stretch of frigid sea between South America and the Antarctic.

The debris was found 30km south of where the plane last made contact, the Air Force said in a statement on Wednesday.

The parts were being recovered for analysis to determine if they belonged to the Hercules C-130 cargo plane.

Relatives of passengers of a missing military plane arrive by bus to the Cerrillos airbase in Santiago, Chile. Source: AAP

The aircraft disappeared shortly after taking off late on Monday from the southern city of Punta Arenas.

The Air Force concluded the aircraft must have crashed early the next morning, given the number of hours it had been missing.

Relatives of passengers of a missing military plane comfort each other as they arrive at the Cerrillos airbase in Santiago, Chile. Source: AAP

"We will continue the search and hope for a better result," Air Force General Eduardo Mosqueira, who leads the search effort, told reporters.

The cause of the crash was unknown and officials acknowledged the slim chances of finding survivors.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Chilean military sent fighter jets in an expansion of its search after large rolling waves in the icy Drake Passage and low clouds had complicated the mission the day before, authorities said.

The region where the plane disappeared is a vast, largely untouched ocean wilderness of penguin-inhabited ice sheets off the edge of the South American continent with depths of 3500 metres.