PNoy heads search and rescue for Robredo, 2 others

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PNoy heads search and rescue for Robredo, 2 others

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay ·

By M. Loterte, L.Macatangay & E Delgado

posted 19-Aug-2012 ·

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President Aquino is in Masbate overseeing the search and rescue operations for Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and two others whose plane crashed off Masbate waters Saturday afternoon.

Following earlier briefing from Masbate police provincial director Heriberto Olitoquit on the status of the operations, the President conferred with local officials and search and rescue teams on updates and to review strategies to recover Robredo and the two pilots of the ill-fated Piper Seneca five-seater plane.

Rescue units and divers from different response teams of the military, police, coast guard, volunteer groups, including local fishermen skilled in deep-sea diving, are relentlessly scouring at least five square kilometers of the crash site in Masbate Pass bent on recovering Robredo and company.

Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of Transportation and Communication, who is also at the command center with the President, disclosed that a sonar equipment is now being used to detect deep underwater metal object in the crash site.

The President Aquino was earlier in the hospital to visit the crash survivor, Police Senior Inspector June Abrasado, Robredo’s aide-de-camp who was plucked from the sea minutes after the incident by fishermen who witnessed the plane crash.

The plane, on the accounts of eye witnesses, plowed into the sea minutes after take off. The plane seemed to make an emergency landing at the Masbate airport.

Cawayan Mayor Edgar Condor said in an interview that the motor of the plane sounded like the rotor of a helicopter and once on take off, appeared to go down instead of up.

Last night, diver-rescuers temporarily withdrew around 11:35 p.m. the night time search underwater from the crash site due to darkness, and strong current, however, a number of boats from the navy, coast guard and fishermen continued to comb the surface overnight.

Also yesterday, fishermen who were first in the crash site helping out in the operations recovered a crumpled portion of the plane the size of a writing desk with the numbers "431" indicating the ill-fated plane broke on impact.

The operations proceeded as early as 4 a.m. today augmented with more rescue units, divers, ships and choppers, including a US Cherokee helicopter that arrived around 9 a.m. to help out in the search and rescue operations.

With President Aquino staying put at the command post, search and rescue operations will continue to find the missing DILG secretary and the two pilots.

Meanwhile in Naga City, masses are being offered by family, relatives, government officials, acquaintances, constituents in the churches of San Francisco, Immaculate Conception, and Metropolitan Cathedral praying for the safety of the secretary and his companions.

Supporters continue to pour in Robredo’s residence to show support and anticipating positive developments for the ongoing search and rescue operations in Masbate waters. (MAL/EAD/LSM-PIA5)

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