Divers in Robredo retrieval ops to locate missing Bronco bomber

MANILA, Philippines - A five-man Philippine Navy technical diving team has been deployed for deep sea operation at Honda Bay in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan in line with the continuing combined search and rescue operation for the two missing Philippine Air Force (PAF) pilots and their ill-fated OV-10 Bronco bomber.

The technical divers who are now in Puerto Princesa City were the same group from the Naval Special Operations (Navsog), an elite Navy unit based at Sangley Point in Cavite who found and retrieved the body of the late Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo from the underwater wreck  of a light Piper Seneca  plane that plunged into the sea off Masbate last year.

“We were flown here the other day. We are now all geared up but we have yet to conduct the actual dive because we have to carefully study and assess the underwater and surface sea conditions on the spot where a sonar search has detected something. We are now heading to the area,” one of the Navsog divers said.

He was referring to a specific area at Honda Bay, particularly off the coast of Barangay Bancao-Bancao.

The five-man Navsog technical divers have been placed under the operational control of the Joint Task Force Bronco, a task group composed of the PAF, Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard, formed to continuously search and locate the ill-fated OV-10 and its two missing pilots.

Six days into their search, rescue and retrieval operations, the task force has so far recovered pieces of plane’s debris. Also, a specific location at Honda Bay where the OV-10 Bronco could have plunged has already been established.

The doomed PAF plane being piloted by Maj. Jonathan Ybanez and 1Lt. Abner Trust Nacion lost contact with the control tower when it was about to land in Puerto Princesa. To date, the fate of the two missing pilots remain unknown.

Air force ground trackers also monitored the plane to be already executing landing procedures while flying over Honda Bay when it disappeared.

“We are hoping that what is down there as detected by the portable sonar, is the missing OV-10. Kahit medyo malalim 'yung area, kakayanin namin marating,” another Navsog diver said.