Pilot killed in plane crash in Compostela Valley plantation

Mokayo town in Compostela Valley (Image from Google Maps)

DAVAO CITY — A pilot was killed when his plane crashed while crop dusting over a banana plantation in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley province on Saturday morning, police said.

Capt. Quintin de la Salde died on arrival at a local hospital due to injuries following the accident at Barangay Union at 10:15 a.m., according to Chief Insp. Jason Baria, spokesperson of the Southern Mindanao Police Regional Office.

Dela Salde was flying a S2R Turbo Thrush crop duster at AIFI Agrotech Plantation at Purok Bayabas when it went down after accidentally hitting a wind cone.

Rescuers from the municipal disaster office rushed the pilot to the Compostela Valley Provincial Hospital in Montevista town where attending physicians declared him dead, Baria said.

Accidents involving light aircraft are common in Southern Mindanao where aging crop dusters are used to apply pesticides to most of the region’s 30,000-hectare plantations of export-grade bananas.