West London explorer denies disappearance in Papua New Guinea was publicity stunt

An explorer rescued from Papua New Guinea while trying to find a remote tribe has dismissed accusations that his mission was a publicity stunt.

Benedict Allen flew out from Heathrow Airport in an attempt to reach the Yaifo - a tribe thought to be one of the last on Earth to have no contact with the outside world - but was reported missing after failing to board a flight back to his west London home via Hong Kong.

He had not taken a phone of GPS with him, and was eventually picked up by helicopter crew and is now recovering at home from symptoms of malaria.

Speaking to his friend, the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, he said his disappearance was not planned or intentional.

He said: “I can see why they get cynical and people have been known to do this, let’s face it.

“I videoed all of this and you can see me deteriorating with malaria.”

Asked whether he needed rescuing, he added: “Er, it ... no.

“Well, I’m not up to speed with what people have been saying, I haven’t read the newspapers, I gather there’s been all this interest, I’m slightly bewildered by it.

“The journalists (on board the helicopter) when they turned up, I happily accepted their phone, they saw me with malaria and took me to hospital.”

Mr Allen said his final tweet before entering the jungle - which read: “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...” - might have prompted others to doubt the authenticity of his journey.

But he added: “People are asking this question because I joked on Twitter as I left.

“I had no commission, I did no interviews before I left.”

He said he had some regrets about not taking a mobile phone or GPS location device with him, but denied he “got lost”.

He told the BBC’s Today programme: “I always knew where I was, things just began to go wrong.”

Mr Allen’s wife Lenka Allen previously told how the couple’s children, 10-year-old Natalya, Freddie, seven, and two-year-old Beatrice, were missing their father.

The professional explorer joked that he needed “a good florist” to help apologise to his wife.

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now.