PAF not giving up on search for missing pilots

MANILA, Philippines - A plane-like wreckage tracked by sonar on the seabed at the mouth of Manila Bay was from an old sunken boat, not from the missing Philippine Air Force (PAF) plane that plunged into the sea last Friday.

Despite the setback, the Air Force is not giving up on their ongoing search for one of their missing downed trainer planes along with its pilot and co-pilot.

“We don’t have any good news yet. Yesterday what the sonar has detected turned out to be an old sunken boat,” Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Catalino de la Cruz told reporters at the sideline of the Philippine Navy (PN) anniversary at the Navy headquarters along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

Compounding the difficulty of their ongoing search and rescue operations, Catalino said, was the lack of available equipment to conduct seabed mapping.

He said their ongoing search is concentrated on a 150-foot deep stretch of sea at the mouth of Manila Bay.

The missing plane piloted by Maj. Niel Tumaning and 1Lt Michael Arugay took off at the Sangley Point airfield in Cavite City for a routine proficiency flight last Friday morning.

An hour later, without making ground contact, the trainer plane was seen by fishermen plunging into the sea.

“It is important for us to locate the aircraft for us to determine what could have caused the crash,” De la Cruz said.