MANILA, Phlippines -- Navy deep-sea divers will scour the
waters off Lamonja Island, Cavite to search for the two missing pilots
of the ill-fated SF 260 plane as the Air Force grounded its remaining
six trainer planes following the incident.
Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Miguel Ernesto Okol said that
with the aid of a seabed mapping ship with sonar tracking device,
rescuers were able to identify an area where the plane could have
crashed. The area was identified as 1x1.2 nautical square miles south
southwest of Lamonja Island, or about 5 kilometers west of the island of
Corregidor.
This was based on accounts from fishermen in the area.
Rescuers will dive 180 feet down to look for wreckage of
the plane and the missing pilots. Elite divers from the Navy, Coast
Guard, and deep-sea divers will look for the pilots, Okol said.
"Yesterday we contracted the services of a ship that mapped the seabed and we were able to pinpoint possible targets," he said.
Probe underway
The Air Force has launched an investigation into the
incident as it grounded six of the remaining SF260 TP planes in the
process.
The trainer plane that crashed was of the turbo-propeller
kind and was procured last 1994. Okol said the two pilots were
undergoing contact proficiency training when the incident occurred.
"There was no distress signal, no mayday," he said.
"We cannot deduce what really happened and the debris we
have now are not enough to provide us with conclusive data," Okol added.
Last week's search only yielded a seat foam, a helmet, tip tank, and a cover.
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