SAF troopers join search for missing Cessna in Albay
COMMANDOS from the elite Philippine National Police -Special Action Force joined the ongoing search for the wreckage of a Cessna plane that is believed to have went down near Mayon Volcano in Albay province on Saturday morning, the Journal Group learned yesterday.
PNP-SAF director Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan O. Okubo said that 14 members of the SAF’s 93rd Special Action Company motored to Camalig, Albay to join the ongoing search for the small plane.
Around 6:30 a.m. yesterday, the SAF troopers joined members of the Sorsogon Provincial Mobile Force Company, the Camalig Municipal Police Station, Bureau of Fire Protection, the Armed Forces and the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in a meeting to coordinate their moves.
The government teams were tasked to launch a search-and-retrieval operation in the rivers and valleys of Bgy. Quirangay in Camalig municipality.
Camalig Mayor Caloy Baldo said that the debris of the Cessna 340 plane has been found near the crater of Mt. Mayon, with the help of a drone flown in the area.
However, he said that the area, which is within the six-kilometer permanent danger zone, cannot be easily reached due to the difficult terrain.
The plane left Bicol International Airport on Saturday morning with a pilot, a co-pilot and two passengers. It was scheduled to land in Manila at 7:53 in the morning but suddenly lost communication with the control tower
SAF commandos are also involved in an ongoing search, rescue and retrieval operation in Isabela province, where a single-engine Cessna plane carrying six people crashed last January 24.
