MANILA, Feb 23 (NNN-PNA) – Rescuers found the four bodies from the small plane, which went down a few hundred metres away from the crater of an active volcano, south-east of Manila, six days ago, a local official said today.
Mayor Caloy Baldo of the Camalig town, where the plane crashed, minutes after taking off, last Saturday morning, said, it could take hours to bring down the bodies of the Filipino pilot and crew and the two Australian engineers aboard the plane, from the volcano slope due to the rugged terrain.
“We already shifted from rescue to retrieval operation,” Baldo told a press conference, adding that, the team reached the wreckage site yesterday and found the bodies.
He said, the team found the four bodies near the crash site, about 350 metres from the crater of Mt. Mayon, a 2,460-metre cone-shaped volcano, located in Albay province, approximately 300 km south-east of Manila, on the island of Luzon.
Baldo said, the cold weather and the lack of insects and birds in the wreckage site, kept the bodies intact, adding that, rescue workers would carry the bodies on foot from the volcano.
The danger of sudden volcanic eruption, rockfalls, or landslides, coupled with bad weather, hampered the search and rescue operation. The crash site is within the six-km danger zone, where no people are allowed, or aircraft can fly.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesperson, Eric Apolonio, said, the wreckage site is located at the west slope of the volcano, at an elevation of 2,500 to 4,000 feet. He has yet to issue a statement on the recovery of the bodies.
Last Saturday, the Cessna 340A aircraft went down three minutes after take-off for Manila, from the Bicol International Airport, in Daraga town.
The Cessna crash was the second in less than a month. On the afternoon of Jan 24, a Cessna plane carrying six people, including the pilot and five passengers, went missing after taking off in Isabela province, in the northern Philippines. The aircraft remains missing.
