LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu, Philippines – A Cessna plane with three persons on board crashed off a beach resort in Barangay Agus here yesterday morning.
The Cessna plane RPC 1175, owned by Mactan Aviation Technology, bore pilot Joseph Brent Chong Jr. and check pilot Saturnino de la Cruz and passenger Dito Adrian who were all unhurt in the incident.
Alain Tapusok, line comptroller of the Air Transportation Office, told The Freeman that the Cessna plane was on a check ride and left the Mactan airport at around 10 a.m. yesterday.
It was forced to make an emergency landing seven minutes after it took off at the Mactan airport and fell in the waters off the Hadsan Cove Beach Resort.
Chiong was able to send a radio message to the tower keeper before the plane’s engine went off.
Fisherman Primo Amoren, who was near the crash site, rescued Chong’s group.
Divers of the Philippine Air Force are now planning how to retrieve the sunken plane. – Ria Mae Booc, Jose Sollano/Freeman News Service