SEARCH ENDS After a two-day climb that started on Tuesday, a team of government rescue personnel, firemen, mountaineers and local guides reaches the gully on Mayon Volcano where a Cessna plane crashed on Feb. 18. They started retrieving the bodies of the four victims on Thursday. —PHOTO FROM CESSNA 340A INCIDENT COMMAND POST
LEGAZPI CiTY — Three of the four bodies of victims of Cessna plane crash were retrieved and dropped off at the base of Mayon Volcano after almost 12 days of operations.
The first body was brought down past 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, near the command post in Barangay Anoling after almost five hours of continuous relay of the responders composed of mountaineers, government personnel, residents and other volunteers.
Camalig Mayor Carlos Irwin Baldo Jr. said, in a Facebook post, that the second body was dropped off at 1:07 a.m. Thursday, and the third was at 3:13 a.m.
The teams carrying the remains of the last victim were expected to arrive within the day.
The Cessna plane carrying the pilot, Captain Rufino James Crisostomo Jr., mechanic Joel Martin, and Australian passengers Simon Chipperfield and Karthi Santhanam went missing on Feb. 18.
The crash site was found 350 meters from the summit crater of the volcano.
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