MANILA, Philippines - It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and Margarita Buton was about to take a nap.
Her eyes closed and with a hand behind her head, she was lying in the foam-less bed inside her shanty in Better Living Subdivision, Parañaque when she was roused by what sounded like a machine gun coming from the sky.
For someone who has lived most of her life near the airport runway, Margarita, 45, thought another plane had just taken off.
But before she could totally ignore the sound, a loud explosion boomed outside her house, and then a huge fire engulfed the shanties of her neighbors.
Her husband Ricky, who was outside the house installing a light bulb, hurried in, shut the door and grabbed her. The flames were just outside their house.
“Hurry, a plane had crashed,” Margarita recalled Ricky telling her.
After the accident, a “traumatized” Margarita cannot sleep, or even be still.
“I need to move because I can still hear the loud explosion wherever I go. And when I close my eyes, I can see fire razing our house,” she recalled while shaking her head.
Margarita said that after Ricky grabbed her, they moved toward a wooden wall, which they tore down, until they broke into the adjacent house of her aunt before the blaze could reach them.
From there, the two ran on the slimy, narrow alleys until the fireball engulfing the shanties was far from their sight.
“I was determined to live but I really thought it was the end,” Margarita said.
“The explosion was loud and the fire was huge. I could see the flames above our roof as we tore the wooden wall and felt its unbearable heat.”
After escaping death, Margarita then realized that Ricky was badly injured. His arms and legs had burns.
But instead of Margarita attending to Ricky’s needs, it was the other the way around.
Ricky was eventually rushed to Parañaque General Hospital, where he was released after a few hours.
Back in their aunt’s shanty, Ricky’s wounds were being treated with medicines they bought using borrowed money.
And while they are thankful they are still alive, the pain caused by the plane crash hounds them.
Especially, when she is reminded of her two-year-old godson Clyde, who was charred to death.
Clyde was among the 14 people killed in the crash, including the plane’s Capt. Timoteo Aldo and co-pilot Jessie Kim Lustica.
The plane encountered a technical problem after taking off from the domestic airport.
Aldo reportedly radioed the control tower and asked for a re-landing but before the tower could reply, the plane crashed into the slum in Taiwan Street past 2 p.m.
A pilot who witnessed the crash told The STAR that the ill-fated plane produced a sound like a “screeching car” before it plunged.
The pilot, who declined to be identified, claimed he saw the plane dive nose down to the crash site.
“I did not expect it to crash because the plane had two engines, which means that if one engine fails, the other can still work to safely land the plane,” he said.
Investigation into the crash formally took place yesterday afternoon after retrieval of the plane’s engines and propeller.
Capt. Amado Soliman of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Inquiry Board said these parts would be “useful” in reconstructing the events before the accident. His team will also use witness accounts to help their investigation.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is expected to give an update Monday afternoon.
As authorities probe into the accident, the Buton couple appealed to the government to help them and the other victims.
“We don’t have money, and now I cannot work. I can’t even buy my own medicine and had to ask from my uncle,” said the 30-year-old Ricky as he wept. “I really don’t know what to do next. We need help.”