Search for 2 missing PAF pilots, trainer plane continues

MANILA, Philippines - Search and retrieval operations for two Philippine Air Force (PAF) missing pilots and their trainer plane that crashed in Manila Bay Friday last week will continue even if the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) had terminated its operations.

Col. Miguel Okol, PAF spokesman, said a joint search team from the Navy and the Air Force as well as those coming from civilian partners of the military will continue scanning the seabed near Corregidor island for the missing SF-260 trainer and its two pilots.

“Combined Air Force and Navy team will continue its search despite the pullout of the Coast Guard to attend to its other important tasks,” Okol said.

“The Air Force, in coordination with the Navy, deployed a boat team to intensify search in Mariveles, Bataan yesterday.”

The Coast Guard had announced that it has terminated its search and rescue operations for the two missing Air Force pilots and their trainer plane.

Okol said the PCG’s move is understandable because they are not involved in the sonar search and diving operations which are being conducted by search teams from the Air Force and the Navy.

The Navy has deployed its Patrol Gunboat 847 and an 11-meter Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat equipped with side scan sonar.

Okol added that Naval Special Operations Group (NAVSOG) divers continue to search the seabed northwest of La Monja island or between the tips of Hormos and Cochinas point.

An undersea Remote Operated Vehicle was also deployed to get a clearer picture of the seabed and underwater environs of the dive sites where the missing PAF trainer plane was monitored to have plunged an hour after taking off from Sangley Point in Cavite.

The Air Force also placed on standby its brand new Sokol helicopters for possible deployment in the ongoing search and retrieval operations.