In Negros Island: CAAP affirms Air Force event, sans plane crash

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines on Friday confirmed the ongoing military exercises over Negros Island airspace, but debunked claims of a plane crash reported on Thursday night.

Silay City-based CAAP public information officer Ofelia Leonardo told MBC Aksyon Radyo that they were informed by the CAAP national office of the military exercises that already started until September 26 this year in Negros Island.

Based on the information relayed to them, Leonardo said airplanes will be making a fly by in Negros Island from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and not lower than 5,000 feet from the ground, Leonardo said without giving further details of the activity.

But Leonardo said she could not say if it was a joint military exercise between the United States Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and that its approval will be from CAAP national.

Leonardo also denied that there was any accident involving any aircraft here in Negros, saying that all passenger planes are all accounted for.

The reported plane crash had alarmed several search and rescue groups in Negros Occidental, after such news was reported in the media.

The alleged plane crash, however, was reported in many other areas of Negros island, such as in Mabinay town in Negros Oriental, and in Isabela, Toboso, and Moises Padilla towns, and Escalante City in Negros OccidentaL.

Colonel Alberto Desoyo, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, who is supervising the internal security operations in Negros Island, also debunked reports that a plane crashed in the island.

He only said he got reports from a detachment commander that he saw a plane Thursday night, flying the airspace of Isabela, and disappeared. It was a raw information that needs validation, he added.