PAF Bronco crashes in Palawan; 2 pilots missing

MANILA, Philippines - Search and rescue teams yesterday found debris of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) OV-10 Bronco plane with two pilots that crashed Sunday night in the vicinity of Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

Col. Miguel Okol, PAF spokesman, said that parts of the light attack aircraft with tail No. R630 were found after the aircraft went missing following takeoff at around 6:37 p.m. Sunday to conduct night flying proficiency training mission.

Another aircraft with tail No. R139 also had night flying mission but was able to return to base after 53 minutes.

Okol said that at around 7:30 p.m. R630 lost contact with the Puerto Princesa tower and failed to land.

Commander Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, said that rescuers from the BRP Davao del Norte of the coast guard retrieved the cargo bay door of the ill-fated OV-10 about 1 nautical mile from the Puerto Princesa airport.

Coast Guard personnel, however, failed to locate either of the pilots, whose identities were withheld pending notification of relatives.

Air Force officials said that OV-10 attack aircraft is a good platform and only seven planes remain operational.

Officials said the remaining OV-10 Broncos were grounded pending an investigation on the incident.

“Combined elements of the Coast Guard and the Navy have found parts of the debris and it appears to be the rear cargo compartment of the vessel,” Okol said.

“We are still holding out hope that the two pilots were able to eject... we are searching for them,” he said.

Okol said the pilots had radioed the control tower that they were five nautical miles off the airfield and preparing to land before they crashed.

“At this point, we could not yet speculate as to what exactly happened,” he said, adding the weather was clear.

Okol said rescue teams from the Naval Forces West and the PCG are continuing the search and rescue operations.

Aside from the PCG’s Davao del Norte, the other vessels that joined the operations include the Navy’s BRP Romblon, BRP Mangyan, and BRP Israel Lumibao.

Several teams from the 501st Rescue Squadron were also deployed, as well as two more teams from the 570 Tactical Wing.

Commodore Joseph Rustom Peña, commander of Naval Forces West, said they are still searching the sea and nearby islets for the missing pilots.

“We hope we can recover the two pilots alive,” said Peña, adding that the area where the Bronco crashed is about 1,000 feet deep, not shark-infested, and the current is not as strong compared to the open sea.

Okol said an S-76 Navy Islander, a twin-engine aircraft, was deployed to participate in the search and rescue efforts.

The North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco is a turboprop light attack and observation aircraft, developed in the 1960s as a special aircraft for counter-insurgency combat. One of its primary missions was as a forward air control aircraft.

The aircraft could carry up to three tons of external ammunition and stay in the air for more than three hours.

The crash is the latest in a string of deadly accidents involving surplus and often old foreign aircraft acquired by the Philippine military.

The air force’s fleet of 30 Broncos was acquired from the United States in 1991 and Thailand in 2004.

The Bronco was developed in the 1960s as a counter-insurgency aircraft by the US Air Force.

The planes are used primarily for close air support missions against Muslim and communist insurgents, mainly on the southern island of Mindanao, Okol said.

However, they are also used to monitor the archipelago’s extensive coastal areas, as well as for search and rescue missions in disaster-prone Philippines, he added.

Okol would not say exactly how old the crashed plane was, but insisted that all of the Broncos were in good condition.

“They have received a good number of upgrades, and we maintain them very well,” he said.

The Philippine military is among the most poorly equipped in the region, and past modernization efforts have consisted mostly of surplus hardware acquired from its traditional ally, the United States.

In May, two pilots were killed when an air force trainer plane crashed north of Manila.

In 2010, eight air force personnel and a civilian were killed when a light cargo airplane crashed in Cotabato City. – With Jaime Laude, Rainier Allan Ronda