Missing US ‘spy plane’ found on roof of Clark duty free store

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Is the US military using sophisticated unmanned aircraft to spy in the areas where Filipino and American troops are holding joint military exercises?

This question surfaced after two workers of a duty free shop here recently found what they claimed was a sophisticated unmanned "spy plane" which was reported to have crashed and was missing somewhere in Clark last February.

The supposed "spy plane," equipped with a camera, recording device and other sophisticated-looking gadgets, was about five feet long with each wing stretching about three feet, said Edwin Dizon who, along with Renato Magsino, found the unmanned aircraft on the roof of the Puregold duty free shop here last Oct. 5.

Dizon told The STAR that they stumbled upon the remote-controlled aircraft on the roof during their regular maintenance work at about 3:30 p.m. that day.

At about 5 p.m., he said two Philippine Air Force personnel arrived, followed by an American who identified himself as from the US Embassy, and carted off the aircraft.

"The Air Force men shouted ‘Yan nga (That’s it)’ several times when they saw the aircraft whose wings had already been detached from the body," Dizon recalled.

He said he and Magsino found the aircraft standing on its nose on the roof, with its wings detached.

"It was not really heavy so it did not cause damage to the roof when it crashed," he said.

Magsino insisted that what they found was a US "spy plane," citing a small sticker on its body with the words "104 pointer spy plane."

"Its body seemed to have been made of dirty white plastic with a camera perched between the wings and other sophisticated devices attached to it," he said.

Dizon and other Puregold personnel produced a document indicating they had turned over the aircraft to the 600th Air Base Wing of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) based here.

A photocopy of the document showed the identification card of Air Force T/Sgt. Dennis Baldonado, who was among those who retrieved the aircraft.

Brig. Gen. Gilbert Llanto admitted that the aircraft, indeed, belonged to the US military and was reported missing during joint military exercises here last February.

"They (Americans) knew the trajectory of the aircraft and they estimated it had crashed on Lily Hill, so there were local boys organized to fine-toothcomb the hill but they found nothing," he said.

Llanto said the aircraft, which was immediately taken to the US Embassy, could be an experimental remote-controlled aircraft being tested by the US military.

"It could not have been one of those satellite-controlled unmanned aircraft which have a wide coverage used by the US military to penetrate targets without endangering expensive equipment and the lives of pilots," he said.

US Marine Capt. Burrell Parmer, however, said he was not aware of any "spy plane" being used in the joint military exercises.