NINE soldiers deployed for a rescue mission were injured after the helicopter they were riding—one of the refurbished Bell choppers purchased by the government —crashed at a forested area in Sarangani province Saturday morning.
Capt. Alberto Caber, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division, said the chopper—a 1963 Bell UH-D1—was attempting to land at Malapatan town around 9:40 a.m. when it was buffeted by strong winds and forced to crash.
“There were prevailing strong winds when the chopper was landing,” Caber said adding that the nine soldiers luckily suffered only minor injuries.
The helicopter was among the 21 refurbished choppers the Department of National Defense acquired at a cost of P1.2 billion from the Rice Aircraft Services sometime in July this year. However, only seven units were delivered.
Authorities terminated the contract after the supplier failed to deliver the remaining UH-D1 units on time.
Caber said the chopper along with the nine soldiers left Rajah Buayan Airport in General Santos City to extricate wounded army soldiers at the outskirts of Malapatan after a series of skirmishes with the New People’s Army.
The identities of the wounded military men were not immediately available at press time.
The series of fighting between security forces and local insurgents in Malapatan that erupted Thursday, have so far left an army man killed and five wounded.
Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad said the chopper was supposed to rescue the critically-wounded soldiers on Friday, but bad weather aborted the mission.
“The chopper was dispatched early morning Friday to pull wounded army troops from the encounter site, but it could not penetrate the thick and black clouds accompanied by strong winds prevailing in the area,” Baladad said.
He said several wounded personnel are still awaiting to be retrieved by the said chopper but failed after it crash landed.
Baladad said he had already dispatched additional aircrafts from the Airforce Tactical Operations Group XI based in Buayan in General Santos City, to augment the ongoing evacuation and rescue operations of the soldiers in the encounter site.
Security forces have launched massive interdiction against the fleeing rebels involved in the fighting with army soldiers in Malapatan town.