ROV to locate plane wreckage first

MANILA, Philippines - Government agencies yesterday decided to first deploy a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) instead of divers to determine if the object found some 80 meters underwater off Palawan was the OV-10 Bronco plane of the Philippine Air Force that crashed last Sunday night.

Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, Philippine Coast Guard-Palawan district commander, said they are first fielding the ROV for safety reasons.

“The diving did not push through. We have to consider (the divers’) safety. It would be better that we first conduct a survey using an underwater ROV so that we would be able to confirm the object underwater,” Evangelista said.

“Diving at the depth of 80-90 meters is dangerous and would require technical diving wherein the divers have to use mixed gases. So it would be better if we use the ROV first before we send the divers,” he said.

Once the object is confirmed to be that of the OV-10 Bronco plane, he said they would then send technical divers of the Philippine Navy.

As of late yesterday afternoon, Evangelista said it was not yet confirmed if the object detected by a portable sonar was the wreckage of the PAF aircraft.