Manila Bay plane crash: 15 killed

It took 27 minutes after takeoff at dawn yesterday for a Fokker-27 commuter airplane, smoke trailing from its left engine, to sputter and crash into the murky waters of Manila Bay.

At least 15 of the plane’s 34 passengers, among them four children, were killed in the crash. Five other passengers were missing and feared dead as rescue workers battled zero visibility last night combing the bay’s bottom.

Laoag International Airline (LIA) Flight LPN 585 had just taken off from Manila Domestic Airport’s Runway 31 with 29 passengers and five crew at 5:58 a.m. for a routine flight to Laoag City and Basco, Batanes.

Immediately after takeoff, pilot Bernie Crisostomo sent a distress call to the domestic air control tower. He reported engine trouble and said he would attempt to land on the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard on the reclaimed area of Manila Bay. The Fokker never made it.

Investigators say engine failure might have doomed the 44-seater, decades-old Fokker.

The plane crashed at 6:25 a.m. into the depths of Manila Bay, less than two kilometers from the reclamation area, stunning joggers along Roxas Boulevard and early morning promenaders at the breakwater.

"After takeoff, the pilot declared an emergency to the tower and he issued a procedure that they are going to make a ditching to Manila Bay," ATO director Adelberto Yap told ABS-CBN television network.

Ten of the fatalities were found still strapped to their seats.

Yap said the impact of the plane as it hit the water split the aircraft and broke off its tail fins, causing the plane to sink swiftly into the sea.

Navy frogmen estimated that the plane may have sunk as deep as 60 feet.

Divers pulled the body of a young boy from the sea and tenderly lifted him into the lap of a rescuer in an inflatable dingy, who cradled the dead boy as the craft moved away from the site of impact.

Confirmed dead were foreigners Ngyen Van Thunn and Taupin Nguyen, and Darren Green, whose passports are still being checked to ascertain their nationality.

Also killed in the crash were Arnel Angeles, Eduania Abrigonda, Jocelyn Fajardo, Nestor Bernal, Jomer Diera, Normita Mata, Jake Padilla, Juliet Margaret Ngyuen and mother and son Cheryl Rada and Earl Joby Rada, 5. It was reported that the Navy frogmen recovered four more children’s bodies, but Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Armand Balilo denied the report.

Flight attendant Gemma Desalla, 38, died shortly after arrival at San Juan de Dios Medical Center (SJDMC).

Tina Desalla-Bongcaraz said she has yet to see the remains of her niece, but was told the flight attendant sustained injuries to her head and the right side of her body.

"We were told she was not even supposed to be on that flight," Boncaraz said, as Desalla was a supervisor of LIA’s flight attendants. "She interviewed and trained newcomers. She was really doing office work at LIA, but she goes on flights whenever an attendant could not make it."

Desalla’s widower, Ferdinand de la Cruz was dry-eyed but distraught as he stood stoically at the SDMC as the President visited survivors. He and his wife have three children aged 15, 13 and 11 and the family resides in Better Living Subdivision, Parañaque City.

De la Cruz said his wife was with LIA since it began operations five years ago.

First response

Over two dozen boats converged at the crash site as nearby fishermen in their outrigger canoes and owners of luxury boats berthed at the nearby Manila Yacht Club were among the first to rescue survivors.

Plucked from the waters of Manila Bay were Batanes-Babuyanes Bishop Jose Salazar, pilot Bernie Crisostomo, co-pilot Joseph Gardiner, flight attendants Adhika Espinosa, flight mechanic Juan Pornillos and passengers Nolly Diero, Tessie Bugarian, Maria Fiterio, Wilfrido Alviso and Carl Barcelona.

All survivors were injured in the crash, seven of them critically, and are confined in the Navy Hospital (NH), Ospital ng Maynila (OM) and the bayside SJDMC. They were battered and bruised from the impact of the crash, Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza said.

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza has assured crash victims’ relatives that the survivors of the Fokker mishap confined and under treatment at the OM will be treated free of charge.

A four-year-old boy and a 50-year-old man died because of water in the lungs while under treatment at OM. Three of the nine survivors are in the OM ICU and three have been declared out of danger.

Mendoza also said that based on the flight manifest, 28 passengers were bound for Basco, Batanes, while eight others were headed for Laoag City. According to Mendoza, seven of the passengers whose names appear on the flight manifest did not board the plane, while a certain Juan Formelo boarded the plane as crew, but was not listed on the manifest.

At least six Australians were on board the plane, as indicated by the copy of the passenger manifest obtained by The STAR. They were going on holiday to Laoag.

Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce said in a statement that she has spoken to authorities in charge of the search and rescue operation. The statement said "the Australian Consul is at the crash scene."

Of the six Australians on board, five were from Sydney and one from Brisbane.

The Australian survivor, 25-year-old Steve Thompson, has been released from the hospital after he was treated for minor injuries, the Australian embassy said. "He was not seriously injured and we have passed news of his condition to his family in Australia. Embassy staff are providing him with assistance."

Thompson said smoke billowed from the plane before it crashed and just after Crisostomo warned passengers to "brace for landing."

Another survivor, Brian Forester, 40, had initially been listed as an Australian, but his nationality has not yet been confirmed.

Search, rescue and salvage

The Navy used a floating crane in an effort to haul up the sunken plane and recover crash victims who may still be strapped to their seats inside the aircraft.

"It is an F-27 Fokker. We are doing our best. We are able to dive the depth," Navy chief Rear Adm. Victorino Hingo told local radio. The Fokker’s wreckage was too heavy to lift and it slipped through the rope lines lashed about it and fell back into the sea twice.

Meanwhile, search and rescue workers battled zero visibility as darkness fell and they continued to search for five missing passengers of the ill-fated flight.

Divers coming to shore to rest said the tail of the airplane had broken off in the crash, though the fuselage was largely intact. They also said their deep-sea flashlights were useless in the muddy, heavily polluted waters.

"The water is really murky and muddy. It’s really dark down there and their flashlights were not working," Coast Guard Commandant Reuben Lista said.

Verge of chaos

A makeshift command post was set up by the Southern Police district (SPD), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Navy and Air Force at the promenade near the seawall, which is located near the Shrine of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life church, LIA vice president for traffic administration Delfin Baccay said.

SPD Director Chief Superintendent Jose Gutierrez acted as ground commander at the crash site.

The situation at the improvised command center was on the verge of chaos as officials of various government agencies, rescuers, the press and relatives of the missing converged on the area.

In an effort to restore order, two blackboards were set up, listing the rescued, the dead and the missing.

One man rushed to the command center looking for word on his wife and seven-year-old son. When he failed to find their names among the rescued, he broke into tears. Their bodies were recovered from the water a few hours later.

Every time a rubber boat came in from the search, distraught relatives rushed to the shoreline to see if a body or a live family member had been brought in.

Ten hours after the crash, rescuers said the five people who are still missing may be presumed dead.

A total of 28 rescue boats were dispatched to the crash site, two each from the PCG and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), nine speed boats from the Navy, Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Air Force.

As of press time, 20 divers are still working to salvage the plane, which, Yap said, is "one of the older" Fokker planes of the Series 600 type.

Aside from flight 585, Baccay said, his firm still has three other airplanes in its fleet – two of them Fokkers.

Baccay said this is the first time his airline suffered a crash.

Mrs. Arroyo, who visited the crash survivors in the hospital, has ordered a full investigation into the crash.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed solidarity with the bereaved families of those who died in the air tragedy as well as for its survivors.

"We pray for those who are still fighting for their lives," CBCP spokesman Monsignor Hernando Coronel said in a statement.

"We offer prayers and thanks for the survivors... including Bishop Jose Salazar of the Prelature of Batanes Babuyanes. We pray for efforts to locate those still missing. We urge all in the midst of this human tragedy to place their hope in God. God is with us in this event of suffering." – With AFP, AP, Reuters, Nikko Dizon, Jose Aravilla, Aurea Calica and Sandy Araneta