A CIVILIAN trainer plane carrying two persons was declared missing and feared to have crashed in Cagayan province on Tuesday afternoon.
In a radio interview yesterday, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said search and rescue operations have been launched to find the missing Cessna 152 plane.
The Cagayan provincial government, in its Facebook page on Tuesday night, said the plane, along with another aircraft, took off from Laoag City airport in Ilocos Norte at 12:16 p.m. The planes were headed for Tuguegarao City airport in Cagayan which they were supposed to reach at 1:11 p.m. Only one of the aircraft arrived at the Tuguegarao airport.
The missing plane, carrying a pilot and an Indian student pilot, was last monitored 32 nautical miles from Alcala town in Cagayan.
Ground and aerial search are being conducted for the missing aircraft, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
“They (authorities) suspect it crashed in the area of Sto Nino, Lasam and Rizal (towns in Cagayan)… I hope and pray they are safe,” said Mamba.
Mamba urged Cagayan residents to report any information about the location of the missing aircraft.
The Apayao provincial government clarified a report that quoted Jeoffrey Borromeo, officer of the Apayao Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management, as saying the crash site was at the border in the boundary of Barangay Salvacion in Luna town and Barangay San Mariano in Pudtol town, and that the bodies of the pilot and student pilot were found in the area. The report was from the Cagayan government.
The Apayao said “the only confirmed information is the possible crash site of the missing Cessna 152. All other information are subject for verification.”
