Mum of missing RAF airman Corrie McKeague reveals landfill site search has come to a sudden stop
Broken excavator forces search teams looking for missing 23-year-old to stand down until Monday at the earliest
THE HUNT for missing RAF man Corrie McKeague at a Cambridge landfill site has unexpectedly come to a “grinding halt”.
Corrie’s distraught mum Nicola Urquhart, 48, announced teams were forced to stand down after the excavator broke down on Friday, while working at the site where detectives hope to find the 23-year-old’s body.
According to the, work is expected to resume on Monday.
Writing on the Find Corrie Facebook Page, Nicola explained: "The search team were stood down first thing this morning as the excavator has broken down.
"Work will hopefully resume on Monday."
Experts say it could take specialist teams up to eight weeks to comb the landfill site in Milton, Cambridge, depending on daily progress.
Cops have described the work as a “considerable task”, given the area identified is more than 920 square metres of waste down to a maximum depth of eight metres.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Corrie has been missing since September 23 last year.
He was last seen on CCTV after a night out on the town with friends in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Final traces of his mobile phone appeared to link it to the movements of a bin lorry making its way to the Cambridgeshire landfill site.
Investigators decided against searching the site initially in favour of looking into other leads surrounding his disappearance.
They started the mass excavation after over 8,000 tonnes of bulk material was moved to make the area safe to search.
Speaking at the beginning of the search, Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott of Suffolk Police said: "We have a large area, around 920 square metres, up to a depth of eight metres, of waste to search through and a plan has been put in place to manage this process to ensure a thorough and comprehensive search is undertaken.
"Teams of specialist search trained police officers from both Suffolk and Norfolk will be carrying out the work to find anything that may be linked to the investigation.
"In planning the search we have taken into account not only the need to find Corrie, but also factors including the noise, odour and disruption implications for local residents and site workers, and the safety and welfare of the officers who will undertake the search.
"We need to find him and discover what happened to him."
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.