Wreckage of Cessna plane that crashed into the slope of Mayon Volcano in Albay province — ALBAY REP. JOEY SALCEDA FACEBOOK PAGE
LEGAZPI CITY (Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network): Albay disaster officials confirmed Wednesday night (Feb 22) that the four people onboard the Cessna plane which crashed near Mayon Volcano were already dead.
In a private message, Camalig Mayor Carlos Irwin Baldo Jr, incident commander, said the bodies were found by the search and rescue teams deployed to make the challenging climb to the crash site located 350m below the summit crater. He did not give other information.
Baldo said the bodies would be retrieved from the area on Thursday morning (Feb 23).
“It’s no longer a search and rescue operation because we are retrieving the dead passengers we found yesterday. Our four passengers are there,” Baldo also said over Teleradyo.
The Cessna RPC340 went missing on Saturday morning with the pilot, Capt Rufino James Crisostomo Jr; his mechanic, Joel Martin; and their two Australian passengers, Simon Chipperfield and Karthi Santhanam.
The debris of the Cessna RPC340 was located some 350m (1,148 feet) from the volcano’s summit crater on Sunday afternoon.
The team, composed of local mountaineers, government rescuers and other guides started to climb on Tuesday (Feb 21) to reach the crash site, about 6,000 feet from the base of the volcano.
