MANILA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua): A military helicopter has sighted the wreckage of a small plane that went missing on Saturday morning in Albay province, southeast of Manila, a government spokesperson said Sunday.
Tim Florece, the information officer of Camalig town, told a local radio interview that the military chopper saw the tail of the aircraft less than 2 km from the crater of Mt. Mayon, a 2,460-meter cone-shaped volcano located in Albay province approximately 300 km southeast of Manila on the island of Luzon.
The Cessna 340A aircraft went down three minutes after take-off for Manila from the Bicol International Airport in Daraga town on Saturday. Four people were on board, including the pilot, a crew and two Australian passengers.
In a statement, Camalig town Mayor Caloy Baldo confirmed the information, saying "that the wreckage of the Cessna 340A was eventually found more than 32 hours since its disappearance."
However, he said that the pilot, the crew, and the two Australian passengers "have yet to be found." "The search and rescue operations continue," he added.
"Authorities are presently investigating the crash site to map out factors that led to the incident," Baldo said.
The volcano is under alert level 2, meaning that an eruption, rockfalls, or landslides can occur anytime. Under alert level 2, no people are allowed inside the six-km danger zone from the volcano. Aircraft are not allowed to fly close to the volcano.
Baldo said that the rescue team is coordinating with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to ensure the team's safety during the retrieval operation.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesperson Eric Apolonio has yet to issue a statement on the sighting. "Waiting for official statements from our aircraft accident investigation and inquiry board," he said in a message to Xinhua.
The Cessna crash in Albay was the second accident in nearly 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. - XInhua
