Police say they discussed searching the landfill site with the family of Corrie Mckeague early on in the investigation into his disappearance.

The airman has not been since 24 September and it is now thought his body is at the landfill in Milton, which is being searched.

Det Supt Kate Elliott said: "We had discussions with the family around coming to search the landfill site at the beginning of the investigation, when we understood Corrie's phone tracked at a similar pace to the waste lorry.

"However, the information at that point did not lead us to believe that it was justifiable to come and search here. The strongest line of inquiry at that time was that Corrie had tried to walk home.

"Having looked at waste disposal processes, the conclusion was that it would have been likely that Corrie would have been identified through the processing before he could have got here."

Det Supt Elliott said the revelation that the weight of the load carried by the rubbish truck was much heavier than previously thought was "very sobering".

Cleah Hetherington
BBC Radio Suffolk

Image source, Getty Images

The invite to visit the police teams searching for missing serviceman Corrie Mckeague at the Milton landfill site in Cambridgeshire was accompanied with an order to wear a hard hat, a high-vis jacket and sturdy boots.

The landfill site is a dangerous place; journalists were warned to stay on the specially created paths.  

Making our way to the search site we passed through a cluster of temporary police offices - one marked clean, one dirty. The path then led us a short distance up a gentle slope from where we could see the 900 square metres that officers have to search.

Image source, PA

It's a huge area and it has to be searched meticulously. A team of eight men and women were at work. They're specially trained search officers and were wearing white protective clothing and gas masks as they undertook their grim task.

They're assisted by an excavator which is watched as it digs into the landfill to make sure no potential evidence is missed. They then use metal rakes to sift through the rubbish.

Image source, PA

It's unpleasant, unrelenting work. 

Since the search began on Monday, the officers have searched through 65 tonnes of landfill, but when you look at the area they've got to cover they've barely made an impression. At the moment they're about one metre down; they may need to go down as far as eight metres.

The work is shared between four teams from Suffolk Police and four teams from the Norfolk force. This morning they'd started the search at 07:30 and were due to carry on until around 17:30, or when they lost daylight.

They carried on through the drizzle that was falling this morning, turning the clay soil under their feet into a thick, heavy mud that clings to everything it comes into contact with.

This is a search that has to be carried out entirely by humans. The array of smells on the landfill site is just too confusing for dogs. Around the search, life on the landfill continues as normal.

There's a faint smell of bubblegum in the air, mixed with the more expected stench of decaying rubbish. It comes from odour control machines positioned around the site, which pump out scented air. Apparently other "smells" are available.

A man is spotted walking a couple of dogs who are used to control vermin on the site. I'm told he was here earlier with his falcons, which are used to keep seagulls at bay.

Suffolk Police expects to be on the site for up to 10 weeks.

Image source, PA

The mother of missing airman Corrie Mckeague has spoken of her "agony" at her son's disappearance.

Det Supt Kate Elliott has admitted her "frustration" over the investigation into missing airman Corrie Mckeague.

Police say the investigation into the disappearance of serviceman Corrie Mckeague has cost more than £300,000 so far.

The RAF Honington gunner has not been seen since a night out in Bury St Edmunds on 24 September, and it is thought that his body could be found at a landfill in Milton, Cambridgeshire, currently being searched.

Police say if the search of the landfill, which Mr Mckeague's family had campaigned for early on in the investigation, runs to the estimated 10 weeks it could cost a further £500,000.

Image source, PA

The force had until now decided against searching the site, as information had suggested that a bin lorry collecting from where Mr Mckeague was last seen was carrying a load too light to contain a body.

Searches of the lorry had also  found no traces of Mr Mckeague .

However, yesterday it was revealed that these figures were wrong, and the actual weight of the load was about 15st. 

Police investigating the disappearance of RAF serviceman Corrie Mckeague are continuing to search a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

A search team investigating the disappearance of Corrie Mckeague has trawled through 60 tonnes of waste at a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire.

Image source, Getty Images

The RAF Honington gunner has not been seen since a night out in Bury St Edmunds on 24 September. Police and his mother say they expect his body to be found at the site.

It could take the team of eight trained search officers up to 10 weeks to sift through rubbish up to eight metres deep, covering around 920 square metres of the dump.

The landfill site at Milton in Cambridgeshire has been kept deliberately clear in case officers were required to carry out searches for Corrie Mckeague's body, police say.

Officers have been searching the landfill since Monday, but yesterday Suffolk Police revealed information which gave a strong indication that the missing airman could be at the site.

Det Supt Katie Elliott said the new information about the weight of the rubbish taken from the horseshoe area in Bury St Edmunds came to light "a few weeks ago".

"We asked them (the site) to keep it clear so that we could make a decision about whether or not we were going to need to search the landfill site," Det Supt Elliott said. 

"We are searching a relatively contained area.

"The priority is to find Corrie and we've been doing all that we can to find him. 

"Now I feel that with the information that we've got to date, we're going in to this search with a really strong rationale behind it and a real justification for being here.

"We want to find Corrie and to find answers for his family."

The officer in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of Corrie Mckeague says it was initially considered unlikely that the airman was in a bin when it was collected from near where he was last seen on CCTV.

Det Supt Katie Elliott said the "strongest hypothesis" they had was that he tried to walk back to RAF Honington from Bury St Edmunds, as he had done on previous occasions.

But now that it's been revealed that the weight of a load of rubbish taken from the horseshoe area was significantly heavier than previously thought, there's a strong belief that Mr Mckeague was taken to the landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire.

"It was believed to have been unlikely that Corrie would've been in the bin at that time, albeit there was the phone signal that tracked back to the waste lorry at the same and the same location," Det Supt Katie Elliott said. 

"However, the information that we had was that the waste collected from that bin was not heavy enough for Corrie to have been in it.

"That's why we focused on a number of other inquiries whilst checking and rechecking the information that we've got.

"It's because of that checking and rechecking that we've got to where we are today."

Kate Williams
BBC Local Live

Police say they are confident Corrie Mckeague's body will be found at a landfill site.

The site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, is being searched by officers investigating the RAF Honington gunner's disappearance.

It is now known that a bin lorry which collected rubbish from near where Mr Mckeague was last seen on 24 September was carrying a significantly heavier load than first thought .

Speaking at the landfill site, Det Supt Katie Elliott told the BBC: "I have a strong belief that we will find him here."

Kate Scotter
BBC News

"Human error" led to misinformation about the weight of rubbish collected from where Corrie Mckeague was last seen, an intelligence expert said.

McKenzie Intelligence Services was hired to investigate the airman's disappearance as a result of a  crowdfunding campaign . 

Managing director Forbes McKenzie said a "genuine accident" had been made in terms of Suffolk Police initially being told the waste collected from the "horseshoe" area had weighed 11kg (1st 10lb).

It has emerged it was actually  more than 100kg  (15st 10lb).

"We don't understand what went wrong," he said.

"But it's subsequently come to light that the scales should've shown more than 100kg, so there is human error there."

Kate Scotter
BBC News

An intelligence expert hired to help investigate Corrie Mckeague's disappearance says there was a "strong thread" of information which helped point police towards the rubbish bin and landfill site. 

McKenzie Intelligence Services was hired as result of a  crowdfunding campaign .

Managing director Forbes McKenzie said his firm collated information from social media posts and phone calls to help provide Suffolk Police, external with data surrounding the case.

He said a number of individuals had commented on the bins in the "horseshoe" area at Bury St Edmunds, and the bin lorry which appeared to follow the same route as the airman's phone.

Mr McKenzie said there were "lots of comments" from people who worked in the waste disposal industry who said the information provided about the bins did not add up. 

"We would like to think we had something to do with directing [police] to that [landfill] site," he said. 

"From the very outset there should've been more work done on the waste site."

As we continue our live updates on the investigation into missing serviceman Corrie Mckeague, here's what other sources are reporting:

• The Daily Record has published, external a "heartbreaking photo" of Mr Mckeague's father at the landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire
• The Guardian reports, external that Mr Mckeague's family "fears the worse" after news broke that the bin lorry was carrying a far greater weight than first thought
• And the East Anglian Daily Times has details of the search, external of the landfill site

As for our coverage, we will shortly hear from an intelligence expert for his insight into what's happened. 

Then, at 15:00, we will be speaking to Suffolk Police to get its thoughts on the big development in the case.

Corrie Mckeague's mother says she does not understand how her son could have ended up in landfill.

Kate Williams
BBC Local Live

Following what appears to be a key moment in the investigation into missing Corrie Mckeague last night, and ahead of getting the thoughts of the police later, here's a timeline of what we know about the RAF Honington gunner's movements since September.

• 23 September: Corrie Mckeague goes out with a group of friends from RAF Honington to Bury St Edmunds
• 01:20 BST, 24 September: CCTV camera opposite The Grapes pub, on the corner of Brentgovel Street and St Andrew's Street, catches sight of Mr Mckeague
• He then slept for about two hours in the doorway of electrical store Hughes on the corner of Brentgovel Street and St John's Street

Image source, Suffolk Constabulary

• 03:25 BST: Mr Mckeague turned right into a loading bay area, known as 'the horseshoe', behind Greggs. He was not caught on camera again
• 26 September: Corrie Mckeague reported missing
• 27 September: Police informed the media of his disappearance and released CCTV footage of him in Brentgovel Street the next day
• 4 October: Revelation that Mr Mckeague's mobile phone had been tracked moving 12 miles (19km) away to Barton Mills, hours after he was last seen on CCTV
•  21 October: Further footage is released, showing his last confirmed sighting, in the horseshoe area 

Image source, Suffolk Constabulary

Since then thousands of frames of CCTV footage have been trawled through and questions raised as to whether Mr Mckeague was in one of the bins taken to a landfill site.

Signals showed his Microsoft Lumia 435 mobile phone had moved to nearby Barton Mills. Police searched a bin lorry after finding its route matched the movements of the device.

However, it was found that the weight of the bin lorry's load was 15kg (33lb) - too light to have contained Mr Mckeague.

As a result, the lorry was released and the landfill site in Milton was not searched.

The phone, however, has still not been found.

• 9 January: It is announced the missing airman is due to become a father
• 10 February: Police announce plans to search the landfill site, and begin preparations for the job
• 6 March: Police start the search of the landfill site
• 7 March: It is announced the load carried by the bin was much heavier than first thought
• 8 March: Corrie Mckeague's mother, Nicola Urquhart, says: "We know we are going to find Corrie in the landfill"

Kate Scotter
BBC News

Biffa, the waste management company which collected the bin from near where Corrie Mckeague was last seen in Bury St Edmunds and took it to landfill, says it has no comment to make about the case. 

A statement from the company read: "We are aware Suffolk Police are investigating the disappearance of Corrie McKeague. 

"As this is an ongoing investigation it would not be appropriate to comment at this time."

Kate Scotter
BBC News

Image source, Google

As we've been reporting, police have revealed that the load of the bin lorry which took the same route as missing Corrie Mckeague's mobile phone  weighed significantly more than first thought .

Many have long wondered whether or not the RAF gunner had gone to sleep in one of the bins and was taken to landfill. 

Talking on Facebook Live in December, Mr Mckeague's mother, Nicola Urquhart, said the bin lorry had gone in to the "horseshoe area" of Bury St Edmunds at about 04:20 BST on 24 September - an hour after the last sighting of her 23-year-old son.

It took about four minutes to pick up just the one bin from Greggs, which was "predominantly cardboard and packaging".

She said it was weighed before it went in the back of the lorry, and at the time, it was thought to weigh 11kg (1st 10lb). 

The calibrated scales had a "margin of error by a couple of grams", she said she had been told. 

Mrs Urquhart said police had looked back at the amount of rubbish that had gone in to that bin over the previous seven months, and it tended to range between 10kg and 15kg.

Yesterday it emerged the bin's load was actually over 100kg (15st 10lb).

RAF gunner Mr Mckeague weighs between 85kg and 90kg, she said.

The search of a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, began on Monday.

Image source, Terry Harris

Retired Met Police officer Colin Sutton says searching the landfill site at Milton would only be done "for a very good reason".

Mr Sutton, who now lives at Eye, said: "Searching landfill is something that you don't do unless you really have no option, unless you really have to.

Image source, Paperpix.uk

"I felt something must be up when I heard it was going to be searched a week or two ago when they made the arrangements, because you wouldn't do that unless you had a very good reason to do it.

"It's such a difficult, dangerous and thoroughly unpleasant task for officers that have to do it."

Mr Sutton said sniffer dogs or electronic equipment wouldn't be able to help with the search.

"The smell and the variety of smells and scents that would be there would make it a very difficult for dogs to sense reliably," he said.

"It's down to a fingertip, hand search."

Corrie Mckeague's mum says she'll ask the questions of police after they've found her missing 23-year-old son. 

Nicola Urquhart said: "There's just no way realistically that Corrie was not in the bin. I've been asking from the beginning for this process to be explained to me."

Image source, Terry Harris

She said police have a dedicated officer exploring the likelihood that Mr Mckeague left the horseshoe area of Bury St Edmunds in a lorry collecting rubbish.

"It's the most logical thing that he's gone in the bin," Mrs Urquhart said.

"The police had said to us that he couldn't go through that process, and it doesn't appear that that's the case. All I want to do is find Corrie and then I'll have my questions."

The search of the landfill in Milton, Cambridgeshire, started on Monday.