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PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan, Philippines — The search for a medical evacuation helicopter that went missing in the waters off Balabac town in Palawan with five occupants has expanded to the sea near Malaysia, according to the chopper’s operator.
Entering its seventh day since the “Yellow Bee” Alouette helicopter disappeared on March 1, the search has now included five sea vessels and three aircraft deployed by the Malaysian government, the nongovernment Philippine Adventist Mission Aviation Services (Pamas) said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Pamas said that the Philippine Aviation Rescue Coordination Center had linked up with its Malaysian counterpart in Kota Kinabalu, which led to the deployment of Malaysian assets, including a C130 aircraft “to conduct search by air and water in Malaysia today (Monday).”
The distance between Balabac’s Mangsee Island, the last location that the missing helicopter visited, and Sabah in Malaysia is about 217 kilometers (117.17 nautical miles).Capt. Dennis Rem Labay, Philippine Coast Guard Palawan district commander, said that even with the chopper missing for a week already, their operation was still “search and rescue” since they had yet to locate the crash site.
“Although there is a possible crash site, which was identified through aerial surveillance, what we will do is check the area using the sonar, and if something is detected, a group of volunteers will dive to verify,” Labay said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Commander Ariel Coloma, the Armed Forces Western Command spokesperson, said a team from a private firm based in Metro Manila joined the search. Its sonar equipment and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) were deployed to the waters around Balabac on Monday.
Pamas also confirmed that a pair of shoes found by members of Balabac’s disaster response unit belonged to nurse Janelle Adler, who is among the passengers. Earlier, coast guard personnel found a tank believed to be a fire extinguisher of the chopper and a pillow owned by Kayrun Nesa Sahibad, the patient who was fetched by the chopper on Mangsee Island before it went missing.