No way missing man could survive conditions

Questions left unanswered on man's disappearance in Central Queensland town.

WHILE the family of missing man Aaron Flynn hold onto hope he will be found, Queensland Police Service have determined the conditions were "not survivable".

The 29-year-old Caloundra man disappeared in Rubyvale, Central Queensland on November 11 as he travelled from the Sunshine Coast to Charters Towers for his uncle's funeral.

Today, Rockhampton Police Inspector Dave Peff said the physical search was terminated on Friday, pending further information.

He said there were plenty of questions left unanswered and urged the public to come forward with any "gem" or "missing piece of the puzzle" which may help police locate him.

|READ| Hopes fade for missing Coast man as dense bush blocks search

"I want to assure the community and the family that we have not given up on this, we are following leads and anything that comes up we will certainly run that out," Insp Peff said.

Missing Sunshine Coast man Aaron Flynn

Aaron was last seen walking with a jerry can along the road on Friday, November 11, but police were first advised he was missing on Wednesday, November 16.

That evening, QPS located Aaron's black Volvo station wagon abandoned and launched the full-scale land and helicopter search of about 50km sq of "difficult terrain" in hot conditions from Thursday, November 17.

|READ| Searchers find missing man's car off Rubyvale Rd roadway

"At this time we are exploring the possibility that he's left his vehicle and walked off from that vehicle," Insp Peff said.

"The difficulty is we don't know in which direction, so it makes it quite a large area to search.

"What I can say is there's been no contact obviously from him and we certainly have no other means of ascertaining his whereabouts since he's left that vehicle."

Yesterday, Aaron's desperate family hired a private helicopter to extend the search and praised the police and volunteers for their help.

|READ| Desperate family hires helicopter to search for Aaron

Volunteers search for missing Caloundra man Aaron Flynn.

Insp Peff said he absolutely understood the family's actions and explained police had conducted a systematic search "very much structured around survivability".

"And structured around the distance that person would reasonably expect to travel in a known time and then we obviously run in a bit of extra distance on top of that," Insp Peff said.

"That's been done, but I do absolutely understand the family's motivation to try and find him and I understand why they're doing what they are doing.

"The reason we have stopped the physical search was based on survivability; now I want to be clear that doesn't mean we say that he hasn't survived, but under the circumstances and the area we were searching, survivability was determined to be zero.

"So that doesn't mean that he hasn't been picked up by someone or hasn't managed to get a lift, what it means is a person leaving that position on foot over that period of time given the heat and the conditions that existed at the time and the amount of water it's believed from expert advice that it wasn't survivable."

Insp Peff implored the community contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or contact your local police.

Originally published as No way missing man could survive conditions