A Cessna 172-type aircraft with a pilot and an aviation student on board crash-landed in Comillas, Tarlac while on its way back to the Clark International Airport in Pampanga Saturday morning.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said that the C172 aircraft of Alpha Aviation with registry number RP-C3567 departed the airport in Clark at 7:29 a.m.
“At 9:44 a.m. on their way back to Clark, pilot Capt. Irineo Manguba requested for an emergency landing citing engine failure. Clark’s tower cleared the aircraft for landing but no reply came from the aircraft,” said CAAP chief information officer and spokesperson Eric Apolonio.
Apolonio said Capt. Manguba reported that he and student pilot Jeny Jerome, an Indian national, crash-landed in the town of Comillas and requested for rescue and assistance.
The Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Center informed the Air Force, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, Alpha Aviation, and the CAAP Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board about the incident.
“Manguba was able to contact the Air Force and informed the pilot of a Sokol rescue helicopter that they have been rescued and are already on their way to the nearest hospital via land travel,” said Apolonio.
CAAP Go team duty officer AAIIB chief Reineer Baculinao dispatched an investigation team to the crash site.
Last Tuesday, CAAP officials led by Director General Capt. Jim Sydiongco met with the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia Dr. Abdullah Al Bussairy and discussed the status of the government’s search and rescue operation involving the Orient Aviation Beechcraft 55 aircraft that went missing on May 17 in San Jose, Mindoro.
One of the aircraft’s passengers was Saudi Arabian student pilot Abdullah Khalid Al Sharif.
The meeting, held at the CAAP office in Pasay City, also clarified findings that debris from the aircraft has been found.
The agency said as of today, no confirmed connection between the debris and the missing BE55 aircraft have been established.
The CAAP Security and Intelligence Service has dispatched an intelligence personnel to accompany the security team that the Embassy has sent to help in the search and to look into all possibilities connected to the disappearance of the missing BE55 aircraft and its passengers.