‘If only I had insisted that my lost explorer brother took a phone’

THE sister of a British explorer who has gone missing in a remote jungle while searching for an isolated tribe says she is going to “give him hell” for not taking a mobile phone with him.

Benedict Allen, 57, had been due back in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, on Sunday to take a flight to Hong Kong.

But his family are now desperate for news of his whereabouts after he failed to catch the flight and has not updated his Twitter account or his website.

His sister, Katie Pestille, told The Daily Telegraph she wished she had badgered him to take communications equipment on the trip.

A search has been launched, led by the helicopter pilot who dropped him off. The father-of-three was last seen in the jungle at Bisorio, in PNG’S northwest Central Range three weeks ago.

He had been trying to reach the Yaifo tribe, who have little contact with the outside world.

Before his departure Mr Allen, 57, boasted that he would not be taking a mobile or satellite phone with him – “just like the good old days”. Writing on Twitter he said: “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...)”

Now his sister has spoken of the family’s ordeal. Ms Pestille, 61, said: “For everyone else it’s very exciting, all the expeditions and things he does. But for a sister and a wife it’s ghastly. It’s really hard for his wife Lenka. She has three young children. She wants him back.” She added: “We don’t think that he has [a mobile phone] and I wish I had insisted that he take one with him, because for a situation like this it would be invaluable. We are going to give him hell when he comes back. He won’t be doing that again in a hurry.

“He knows all about that survival stuff, but what worries me is there are bad people in these jungles; loggers, drug dealers, all sorts of bad people,” she added. “His children have not been told he’s lost but I’m sure they keep asking ‘when is daddy coming home?’”

Mr Allen was trying to make contact with the Yaifo tribe he first encountered 30 years ago.

He described the tribe’s greeting on that occasion as “a terrifying show of strength, an energetic dance featuring their bows and arrows”.