Missing light plane sighted

A small plane with four people aboard crashed in the Sierra Madre mountains of Northern Luzon and there were no signs of survivors, officials said yesterday.

A report by the Air Transportation Office (ATO) said the single-engine Cessna "apparently slammed into the slopes" of the heavily forested Mt. Susong Dalaga at 4,800 feet.

The largely intact plane was sighted by search aircraft sent by its owners, private charter company Chemtrad, but there were no signs of the three passengers and pilot, Chemtrad pilot Anthony Cortes said.

On board the Cessna 207, missing since Friday morning, were Capt. Edgardo Castillo, the pilot, and passengers Heidi Cabrera, a dentist, and her daughters Hazel, 3, and Nicole, 1.

The plane took off from Tuguegarao, capital of Cagayan, at 8:12 a.m. Friday for a 35-minute flight to Palanan in nearby Isabela province.

The plane was declared missing about an hour after it was due to arrive in Cauayan Airport, Palanan.

Based on the report of Capt. Jacinto Ortega, ATO chairman, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) said the seven-seater plane was still intact and perched on tree branches. But based on the wreckage, experts expressed fears the four on board were already dead.

The PAF dispatched a Jet Ranger helicopter to the area where a rescue medical team would be lowered to the crash site which is estimated some 25 kilometers northeast of Cauayan town in Isabela.

Members of the PAF search and rescue operations had failed to climb the mountain due to the steep trails and thickness of the fog.

Ortega said the agency will investigate why the plane plunged into the Sierra Madre.