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Wednesday, February 26, 2025
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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

PNP officer lone Pinoy casualty in US air collision

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A Filipino police officer was among the people killed in a mid-air crash in Washington between a US commercial jet and a military helicopter, Philippine police said Friday.

The Wednesday night disaster caused both aircraft to tumble into the icy Potomac River, killing 67 passengers and crew.

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“The Philippine National Police mourns the tragic loss of Police Colonel Pergentino N. Malabed, Chief of the Supply Management Division, who was among those on board the American Airlines flight that collided mid-air with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport,” an official statement said.

Manila was notified that a body  carrying Malabed’s passport was recovered from the Potomac, police spokesman Colonel Randulf Tuano told reporters.

Malabed’s widow is set to fly to the United States to formally identify and claim the remains, Tuano added.

NO SURVIVORS. Search and rescue boats combed the Potomac River on Wednesday night for the remains of the passengers of the passenger plane that collided with a military helicopter. AFP

Malabed and two other officers had flown to the United States to test personnel vests that the Philippine police planned to purchase.

Malabed then headed onwards alone intending “to pay a courtesy call” to the police attache of the Philippine embassy in Washington.

Meanwhile, investigators recovered the black boxes from the passenger plane, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB said it had recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier jet.

“The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation,” the agency said in a statement to Agence France Presse (AFP).

According to a New York Times report, staffing was thin in the control tower at Reagan National Airport, where the airliner was about to land when the collision occurred.

One controller, rather than the usual two, was handling both plane and helicopter traffic, the Times quoted a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration report as saying.

A fireball erupted in the night sky and both aircraft tumbled into the icy Potomac, leaving rescue crews with the grim, difficult task of searching for bodies in the dark and cold. Over 40 bodies had been recovered as of Thursday evening, according to US media reports. With AFP

Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Filipino cop among casualties in Washington plane crash.”

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