Print
    18 August 2012| last updated at 08:14PM

    Philippine interior minister missing in plane crash



    0 comments

    MANILA: Philippine Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo is among three people missing after a small plane crashed at sea off a central island today, officials said.

     

    The Cessna crashed near the shore of Masbate island while trying to make an  emergency landing after suffering an unspecified engine problem, regional  military spokesman Colonel Generoso Bolina told reporters.
     
    “Secretary Robredo was in a light aircraft en route to Naga from Cebu. 
     
    There was an engine problem so they sought permission to make an emergency  landing at Masbate, but the plane did not make it there and crashed,” Bolina  said.
     
    Four people were on the private plane.
     
    Robredo’s aide was rescued but the 54-year-old cabinet member and the two  pilots remain missing, according to Bolina.
     
    Transport Secretary Manuel Roxas said President Benigno Aquino had been  informed of the accident and was keeping track of the search.
     
    “Let us all pray for his safety,” Roxas said over Manila’s Radio Inquirer.
     
    Roxas said the crash occurred at 4:30 pm (0830 GMT) about one kilometre  (0.6 miles) off shore.
     
    The rescuers temporarily called off the search about three hours later as  night fell, said their leader Superintendent Gonzalo Villamor.
     
    “There’s some undercurrent and by the time it got dark we had not managed  to find the aircraft,” Villamor told Manila radio station DZBB.
     
    “The aide-de-camp managed to remove his seatbelt and extricate himself just  before impact, but he did not see the others,” Villamor said. The search would  resume at first light, he added. -- AFP

    Leave Your Comment


    Leave Your Comment:

    New Straits Times reserves the right not to publish offensive or abusive comments and those of hate speech, harassment, commercial promos and invasion of privacy. Your IP will be logged and may be used to prevent further submission.The views expressed here are that of the members of the public and unless specifically stated are not those of NST.