Still no trace of missing plane

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – Now almost a week, authorities have yet to find any trace of the light plane that went missing shortly after taking off from the Tuguegarao City airport en route to Isabela’s coastal town of Maconacon.

Authorities though said the search for the missing BN Islander Chemtrad twin-engine plane (with tail number RPC 764) with seven people on board would continue without let-up during the Holy Week.

“It’s going to be an open-ended search. We will continue our search even beyond the Holy Week for as long as we receive information from people in the field on its possible whereabouts,” said Chief Superintendent Roberto Damian, Cagayan Valley police director.

Despite a general idea of the plane’s whereabouts, Damian said they still considered it “missing” as of press time.

He said the ground search would be further intensified along the vast Pacific coastline and in the northern Sierra Madre mountain where the aircraft was believed to have crashed or made a forced landing.

Aerial efforts to locate the plane by a joint team of the Philippine Air Force and Air Transportation Office have so far yielded nothing.

On board the plane were Capt. Tomas Yañez and his co-pilot, Capt. Ranier Ruiz, and their passengers SPO2 Rolly Castaños, Celestino Salacup, Joel Basilio, James Bakilan and Abelardo Baggay, all from Maconacon town.