Helicopter crash in Cavite kills 2 Navy pilots

NO SURVIVORS Two pilots assigned at the Naval Air Wing in Sangley Point, Cavite City, were killed on Thursday when their Robinson R22 training helicopter crashed near the public market at the Draga reclamation area. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. (Photo from the Calabarzon Police Region Office)

MANILA, Philippines — Two Philippine Navy pilots were killed after their helicopter crashed near the Cavite City public market on Thursday morning, according to military and police officials.

A report from the Calabarzon Police Regional Office (PRO4A) said that Lt. John Kyle Borres, 36, was declared dead on arrival at Cavite Medical Center. His co-pilot, Ensign Izzah Leonah Taccad, 27, died while being treated at Bautista Hospital in the same city.

READ: 2 killed in Navy chopper crash in Cavite – AFP

Both fatalities were assigned at the Naval Air Wing in Sangley Point, Cavite City, it added.

Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, said that the Philippine Navy’s Robinson R22 training helicopter crashed at the Draga Reclamation Area in Barangay 57, near the city’s public market.

“The two navy aviators were rushed to the hospital for medical treatment but succumbed to their injuries,” she reported.

In a statement, Commodore John Percie Alcos, the Philippine Navy spokesperson, said the helicopter took off at Sangley Airport with the two pilot officers on board for a training flight.

According to him, the helicopter tried to make an emergency landing but crashed at about 6 a.m.

“The pilots were rushed to nearby hospitals by the responding teams from the Philippine Fleet and Naval Air Wing, but it is unfortunate that they were not able to make it,” Alcos said.

Both he and Padilla said a thorough investigation would be conducted to determine the cause of the crash.

Airworthiness checks

“Philippine Navy aircraft undergo regular inspection and maintenance to ensure airworthiness. Nevertheless, no stone will be left unturned as we endeavor to prevent this kind of accident from happening again,” Alcos said.

The ill-fated R22 training helicopter was the last in the Navy’s fleet.

On Jan. 25 last year, an Air Force plane crashed in Pilar, Bataan, killing the two pilots on board.

The SF-260 aircraft, the Marchetti, left Sangley Point in Cavite for a training flight around 10 a.m. Nearly an hour later, it was spotted flying low before crashing into a field in Sitio Tabon, Barangay del Rosario.

One of the country’s worst military aviation disasters in recent history, however, was the C-130 plane crash in Sulu on July 4, 2021, that killed 47 of the 96 people onboard, mostly government troopers.

Between July 2020 and July 4, 2021, a total of 73 people lost their lives in a series of military plane crashes. Four cases were recorded in 2021 alone and did not involve combat operations.

In June 2021, a brand new Sikorsky S-70i Black Hawk combat utility helicopter crashed near Sitio Binyanan at the village of O’Donnell, in Capas, Tarlac province, while on a night proficiency training flight. Six pilots and crew members were killed.