MORE NEWS, CAGAYAN

Plane crash victims’ remains retrieved; rescuers trapped
By Armand Tamaray

TUGUEGARAO CITY– A 42-member rescue team is now trapped at the crash site of an Islander twin-engine plane in the jungles of Cagayan amid the bad weather that has caused flash floods in some lowland areas in the province, the Office of Civil Defense said Thursday.

The rescuers, composed of policemen, Army men and civilian volunteers responsible for the discovery and retrieval of the remains of the seven people on board the ill-fated plane, were reportedly still in the vicinity of the crash site in Sitio Baying, Barangay San Miguel in Baggao town.

Melchito Castro, OCD director for Cagayan Valley, said two helicopters tasked to fetch the rescuers were having a hard time to land because of bad weather.

Chief Supt. Roberto Damian, Cagayan Valley police director, said the military helicopters would wait for good weather before taking off to the crash site, about 15 minutes from the city airport, to fetch the rescuers.

The plane owned by Chemtrad crashed last April 2 while on its way to Maconacon, Isabela, claiming the lives of its pilot, Capt. Tomas Yañez, co-pilot, police major Ranier Ruiz, and their five passengers.

The police-led search teams recovered late afternoon April 20 all seven bodies of passengers and crew of the ill-fated light plane that crashed on April 2 in Baggao town in Cagayan.

Chief Supt. Roberto Damian, Cagayan Valley police director, said the bodies were taken to the landing zone several hundred meters above the crash site in the jungles of Sitio Baying, Barangay San Miguel.

The remains, Damian said, were transported by helicopter to Tuguegarao Airport for laboratory identification tests at the police regional office in Camp Adduru, Tuguegarao City.

Those to be identified were the bodies of Captain Tomas Yañez and his co-pilot Captain Ranier Ruiz, and their passengers Councilor Abelardo Baggay, SPO2 Rolly Castaños and Celestino Salacup, all from Maconacon, Isabela; barangay chairman Joel Basilio of Sapinit, Divilacan town, also in Isabela; and James Bakilan of the Divilacan  local government.

“(The) bodies were entangled in the wreckage (which was strewn at an altitude of more or less 5,200 feet) necessitating the transport of special tools,” said Damian, also the head of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council spearheading the retrieval efforts.

The search teams only located the remote crash site on April 14, almost two weeks after the Chemtrad plane went missing while on its way from Tuguegarao airport in Cagayan to Isabela’s coastal Maconacon town on April 2.

The twin-engine Islander plane was believed to have slammed into a mountain ridge in Baggao while trying to avoid bad weather on the way to Maconacon town.
“Low cloud cover and rains in the crash site hampered retrieval operations,” said Damian.

Police have asked the help of relatives in identifying the seven passengers who died after the ill-fated Chemtrad plane crashed along the heavily vegetated area of Cagayan.

Cagayan Valley (Region 2) police director Chief Supt Roberto Damian said the bodies on board the search and rescue helicopter of the Philippine Air Force were already in an advanced state of decomposition.

Damian said the bodies were laid at the landing area of the airport while waiting for a priest to bless the remains. -- CL