الخميس، 28 يناير 2010
المكان: الفلبين
الضحايا: 8 أشخاص
طراز الطائرة: N-22B
أعلنت السلطات الفلبينية سقوط طائرة عسكرية فوق منطقة سكانية فى جنوب البلاد يوم الخميس، 28 يناير 2010 ما أسفر عن مقتل قائد بارز بالقوات الجوية وسبعة أشخاص آخرين كانوا على متن الطائرة.
وأضافت السلطات أن شخصين على الأرض أصيبا جراء سقوط الطائرة بعد قليل من إقلاعها من مدينة كوتاباتو واشتعال النار بها.
وسقطت الطائرة على ثلاثة منازل مما أدى إلى اندلاع حرائق بهذه المنازل.ولم يعرف على الفور سبب تحطم الطائرة التى قتل فيها الميجر جنرال بوتش لاسون قائد القوات الجوية فى جنوب الفلبين.
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Air Force on Monday said material factors such as possible engine malfunction could have caused last Thursday's crash of a Nomad N-22B twin prop airplane that killed nine people.
Lt. Col. Gerry Zamudio, PAF spokesman, said an investigating team led by Capt. Ian Lamzon has already finished collecting parts of the Nomad wreckage for examination. Witnesses have also testified how the plane crashed just minutes after taking off past 11 a.m.
Zamudio said a transcript of co-pilot 1st Lt. Angelica Valdez's last message to the Cotabato City Airport control tower showed that the pilots already sensed danger immediately after takeoff.
Rommel Quilantang, one of the men on duty at the control tower, said Valdez confirmed that they had an emergency after taking off at 11:35 a.m. Quilantang said that after Valdez's last message, they saw the Nomad plane descend and feared that the plane was going to crash.
All 8 passengers of the plane, including PAF 3rd Air Wing Division commander Maj. Gen. Mario "Butch" Lacson, were killed in the crash. A civilian was killed and 2 other civilians on the ground were injured.
Zamudio said the investigating team will be opening the plane's right engine and get technical expertise from Rolls-Royce to check for possible malfunction.
Plane goes down two minutes after takeoff
"Power loss," the pilot radioed the control tower moments before the Nomad plane nosedived, missed a chapel and slammed into two houses in a residential area in Cotabato City.
All eight people aboard including Philippine Air Force Maj. Gen. Mario 'Butch' Lacson of the 3rd Air Division based in Zamboanga City - and a civilian on the ground were killed in the fiery crash at 11:37am Thursday (January 28), PAF officials said.
Two other civilians were injured on the ground.
Officials said the military plane plunged barely two minutes after taking off from the Cotabato Airport- more popularly called Awang airport - in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
The plane was decades old, having been acquired from Australia in 1975.
"As it took off, the plane suddenly nosedived and hit residential areas," Mayor Muslimin Sema, quoting witnesses, told reporters. "It was flying in a zigzag mode."