Air Force jet missing over Spratlys

A Philippine Air Force reconnaissance jet with two pilots failed to return yesterday from a patrol and rescue mission over the Kalayaan Group of Islands (KGI) in Palawan, the military reported.

Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Horacio Tolentino said that the missing S-211 jet was one of two S-211 aircraft sent to the KGI to search for a fishing boat with 26 Filipino crewmen that reportedly capsized near the Pag-Asa island last Wednesday during stormy weather.

One jet returned to western Palawan province, but the other did not, said air force spokesman Lt. Col. Epifanio Panzo.

“We don’t know what happened. We don’t know if it crashed. We lost contact. It’s missing,” he said.

Panzo said the two jets took off at 8:45 a.m. from the Western Command in Puerto Princesa City with enough fuel for four hours of flight. He said contact with the missing jet was lost less than two hours after takeoff.

The two planes were scheduled to be back at base by 12:45 p.m. but only one showed up at about 11:37 a.m.

Gen. Tolentino identified the missing pilots as Captains Bonifacio Soriano II and Gavino V. Mercado. The pilots of the other S-211 that was able to return to the airbase were Captains Thomas Ryan Seguin and Alfred Sarmiento.

In his report to Tolentino, Seguin, the lead pilot, said he asked the other plane if they could see them.

The wingman of the other plane replied “negative,” so Seguin suggested that both of them climb to 8,000 feet, where he found the visibility was clear. When he called the other plane again, there was no reply.

After a few more minutes of “radio search” and since the S-211 has only a four-hour endurance, Seguin decided to go back to base.

Tolentino said that service records of the missing plane for October and November are “full mission capable,” which means there was nothing to indicate that there was something wrong with the engine or the plane itself. – Rudy Santos, AP