Rescue dogs join teams searching for Cessna plane in Isabela forests

HELP ON ITS WAY | Sniffer dogs handled by a rescue team from the provinces of Cavite and Batangas will help in the search for the Cessna plane that went missing on Jan. 24 in the forests of Isabela. —MDRRMO-DIVILACAN PHOTO

CITY OF CAUAYAN, Isabela, Philippines —Six search and rescue dogs have joined ground teams to help locate a missing Cessna plane, which was believed to have crashed in the forests of Divilacan town in Isabela province more than three weeks ago.

The six-seat Gen AV Cessna 206 went off radar on Jan. 24 while heading to Maconacon town, some 60 kilometers from the Cauayan Domestic Airport, where it took off at 2:16 p.m. It was carrying six people, including the pilot, when it disappeared.

In an interview on Wednesday, Constante Foronda, head of the Isabela provincial disaster risk reduction and management office, said 12 members of a rescue team from Cavite and Batangas provinces would handle the sniffer dogs in scouring the Sierra Madre mountain ranges, where operations had been focused since the search was launched.

On Monday, Anna May Kamatoy, mother of two of the five plane passengers, brought some of the used clothes of her children so that the sniffer dogs could pick up their scent.

Foronda said there was still no sighting of the plane or its six passengers during the previous search operations, which were halted several times due to the heavy rains, thick clouds, swollen rivers and slippery trails of the Sierra Madre.

“We are hoping that clouds will clear up for another round of aerial search,” Foronda said.

He said the rescue teams, composed of policemen, soldiers and volunteers, were still trying to determine the location of a possible crash site after they failed to find debris in several areas that they identified.

Getting sick

Some members of the search team also fell ill due to the rough terrain and the bad weather.

The search teams used to track the forests of Sapinit village in Divilacan after a long-range drone detected a “white object” in the area on Jan. 26.

A farmer also reported seeing a plane likely crashing in the area around the time the aircraft went missing.

The search site at Sapinit was 10 kilometers from the cell site where the last mobile phone signal from one of the passengers was logged. No wreckage, however, was found in the area.

—VILLAMOR VISAYA JR.