PAF plane with two pilots went missing off Palawan

By Ronron
November 26, 2007

A Philippine Air Force (PAF) jet with two pilots went missing off Palawan on Monday morning while on a maritime patrol mission over the Kalayaan Group of Islands to search for possible survivors of a sunken fishing vessel, PAF officials said.

PAF spokesman Lt. Col. Epifanio Panzo, Jr. said a pair of AS-211 jet took off from the Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan at around 8:45 am but one failed to return at around lunchtime and remains unaccounted for as of press time for a still unknown reason.

PAF commander Lt. Gen. Horacio Tolentino identified the missing pilots as Captain Gabino Mercado, Jr,, the pilot in command, and Captain Bonifacio Soriano III, the co-pilot.

“The last contact of the lead aircraft with the missing aircraft was around 10:30 am, when the former directed that they go up together to get out of a cloud. When the lead aircraft surfaced from the cloud they were in, it no longer saw the missing aircraft, and it did not respond anymore,” Tolentino said in a phone interview.

“It could mean that the missing aircraft was not able to follow the lead aircraft,” he added.

Tolentino said the last contact was made while the two aircrafts were approximately 15 nautical miles south east of Pag-asa Island.

The lead aircraft was able to go back at the Antonio Bautista Air Base at around 11:37 am, said Panzo. At around 12:45 pm, the other aircraft was officially declared as missing since it failed to return to the airport.

Tolentino and Panzo refused to speculate on what could have happened to the missing aircraft, although the former assured that the weather was quite favorable for a flight at the time the two aircrafts took off.

“The weather was good. It was just cloudy. But it was good that’s why they took off,” Tolentino said.

Tolentino said the mission of the aircrafts was to help in the search for possible survivors of fishing vessel Viranna, which sunk last November 22 off Kalayaan Group of Islands or 275 nautical miles west of Palawan mainland, , leaving close to 30 fishermen missing as of yesterday.

According to Tolentino, an AS-211 can fly to a maximum of four hours if its external fuel tank is filled. Otherwise, it can only fly for two hours.

“The aircraft is feared to have run out of fuel since the fuel capacity of the aircraft is good for only four hours,” Panzo said.

Panzo said the Philippine Navy immediately helped in the conduct of search operations for the missing jet and pilots, aside from other elements of the Air Force in the area.

Later in the day, a P-3 Orion of the US Forces from Clark Air Base in Pampanga helped in the search operations to pinpoint the location of the missing AS-211, said Tolentino.

The PAF has four AS-211 units in its inventory, including the missing one, while two more are in the process of recovery or refurbishment, Tolentino said./END