MANILA, Philippines — About 300 rescuers were searching today for Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and his two pilots after their small plane crashed into the sea while attempting an emergency landing. An aide of Robredo made a dramatic escape from the doomed plane and was helping in the search, officials said.
MANILA, Philippines — About 300 rescuers were searching today for Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and his two pilots after their small plane crashed into the sea while attempting an emergency landing. An aide of Robredo made a dramatic escape from the doomed plane and was helping in the search, officials said.
The four-seat Piper Seneca took off Saturday from central Cebu city, where Robredo had met local officials, and was 30 minutes into the flight to his hometown of Naga city when one of two engines failed and the plane began to wiggle. The Filipino pilot and Nepali student co-pilot scrambled to land in Masbate province but missed the runway by about 550 yards, Transport Secretary Mar Roxas said.
President Benigno Aquino III flew today with his defense chief and the heads of the national police and the military to Masbate, about 235 miles southeast of Manila, to oversee the U.S. military-backed search.
Only the tip of the right wing has been found so far, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told The Associated Press.
Dozens of divers scoured the sea while helicopters and ships crisscrossed overhead. Troops and police searched along the coast and a U.S. Navy plane flew over the area to help look for the wreckage.
Helping in the search was Robredo’s police aide, Jun Abrazado, who was the fourth person on the plane. He lost consciousness as the plane slammed into the water, but managed to swim out of the cabin when he came to and was rescued by fishermen.
In the chaotic moment before the plane went down, Abrazado embraced Robredo and made sure their seatbelts were on, Roxas said.
“When he regained consciousness, he was still in the plane. The water had risen up to his chest in the cabin and he tried to grope for Secretary Jesse but could not find him. He swam out of the cabin,” Roxas told DZBB radio.
At the time of the crash, the undercurrents were “very, very strong,” Roxas said. “We hope he’s just floating somewhere, holding to a piece of debris or wood.”
Abrazado was helping the search from his hospital bed by describing how the plane went down and where it was at the time. He was bruised and his arms were in a sling. The president visited him and then joined police, coast guard and army generals at a beach near the crash site where they poured over maps.
Robredo, 54, is popular with the public for the reformist and clean image he has built in a country long exasperated with political patronage and corruption — social ills he has fought since entering politics as Naga City’s mayor in 1988.