ITBAYAT, Batanes – A light aircraft carrying five passengers, including a two-year-old girl and an infant, swerved from this town’s only runway as it landed on Wednesday (Dec. 14) morning, the police said.
The small plane (with tail no. RPC-1801), operated by Fliteline Airways, descended at 8:01 a.m. when pilot Captain Adrian Jether Aquino and co-pilot Carlo Cariño lost control of its left side brakes.
The aircraft veered right and rolled off runway 36 of the Jose Abad Airport, according to Police Corporal John Dale Nobleza, who investigated the accident.
The aircraft’s nose and the front wheel broke when it stopped at the 700-meter section of the 1,000-meter runway.
No one was injured, said Dr. Nikita Gato, the municipal health officer.
The plane flew nurse Fhaye Garcia, 32; municipal employee Kathleen Garcia, 26; 2-year-old Agatha Garcia; baby Alison Garcia; and seaman Rendel Niño, 26, from the Basco Airport.
The nurse was accompanying Kathleen, who had recently delivered newborn Alison at a Basco hospital.
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