Search for missing Cessna plane in Isabela expands to sea

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

CAUAYAN CITY — A search team was deployed on Monday to the waters off Isabela province after rescuers failed to find the missing Cessna plane and its six occupants in the forests of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in the last 12 days.

In an advisory, Constante Foronda, Isabela provincial disaster risk reduction management officer and incident management team commander, said rescue workers from the Philippine Coast Guard have been helping in the search.

READ: Still no sign of Cessna plane that went missing in Isabela — CAAP

Foronda said other search teams had already reached the initial target site at Barangay Dicaruyan in Isabela’s Divilacan town, but the plane’s wreckage was not found.

Joshua Hapinat, incident management team spokesperson, said only white rocks, cliffs, waterfalls and trees were seen in the remote forest of Dicaruyan, where a farmer reported seeing the plane crash at the time it went missing on January 24.

READ: CAAP: Missing Cessna plane now in ‘Distress Phase’

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines announced that it was examining the records of radar stations in Aparri town in Cagayan province, Laoag City in Ilocos Norte province, and Tagaytay City in Cavite province that may have tracked the Cessna 206 before it disappeared. INQ

READ: Isabela local gov’t spots ‘possible wreckage’ of missing Cessna plane