By Saul E. Pa-a
TANAUAN CITY, Batangas, Feb. 17 (PNA) -– Officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) are pursuing the investigation on Monday on the busted flight of a Cessna 172 training aircraft with body number RP-C993 which crash landed at the Capt. Manny Barradas airstrip in Tanauan City Sunday afternoon.
Initial investigation conducted by the Tanauan City police officers on case Police Officer 3 (PO3) Art Francisse M. Oliva and PO3 Bernardo D. Villanueva disclosed that the CAAP dispatched authorities to determine the cause of the crash in a Tanauan vegetable farm.
In an interview with PNA here Monday, PO3 Oliva said the training plane piloted by Captain Richard Rieza Ricon, 27 of Puerto Princesa, Palawan was taxiing at the Captain Manny Barradas Airstrip heading towards the eastern direction with three student passengers on board at about 1:30 p.m.
The training plane took off and was just on its test flight at low altitude when it tumbled 15 minutes later for undetermined reason and landed in the sponge gourd (patola) plantation owned by Arthur Barradas, resident of the Barangay Trapiche in this city.
Witnesses said the right wing of the aircraft hit the ground during the crash.
Capt. Eugene Ferrer of the University of Perpetual Help System (UPHS) School of Aviation which operated the training school in Tanauan City alerted Capt. Rocamora on the incident at about 8:35 p.m. Sunday with aviation investigation on duty Harry Paradero and Roderick Briones.
The three passengers on aboard including pilot Capt. Ricon sustained injuries as the busted aircraft crash-landed in normal position at the veggie farm facing east in the Trapiche village crash site.
PO3 Oliva said the four plane crash victims were rescued by the aviation crew of Perpetual Aviation School of Las Piñas City which operated the hangar in Tanauan City and the nearby Sapphire Aviation Training aircraft technicians.
Tanauan City police identified the two injured student pilot-trainees as Niel Gideon Sandoval Muya, 20 of Barangay Putingkahoy, Silang, Cavite and Gebet Galas Bagas, 27 of Las Pinas City.
Another crash victim was Vic Caballero Roldan, 41, aircraft technician of Barangay Pagaspas, Tanauan City.
The crash victims were first rushed to the Daniel Mercado Medical Center (DMMC), Tanauan City and later transferred to the Perpetual Help Hospital for further medical treatment. (PNA)