Divers go deeper to search for Robredo plane – Roxas

Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas.

MANILA, Philippines – Divers went deeper underwater Monday to search for the wreckage of the airplane carrying Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo that crashed into the waters off Masbate island Saturday.

“This is now what we call a technical dive,” Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas said in a televised interview Monday.

Roxas said that recreational dives are around 100 to 120 feet underwater “and even then you can only stay around 10 minutes.”

“The target depth in this dive is about 200 feet up to 250 feet,” Roxas said. A diver was previously able to recover the flight manifest at a depth of around 150 feet, and saw the sea floor had skid marks going deeper, he added.

Additional equipment that would help the diver breathe deep underwater had also arrived early Monday, Roxas said.

Roxas said that they were still very hopeful that Robredo, along with the two pilots, had managed to leave the plane and were carried away by the strong currents before the plane sunk.

Robredo had left Mactan, Cebu Saturday afternoon on a Piper Seneca six-seater, twin-engine plane heading for Naga City. The plane had reportedly encountered engine trouble and requested to make an emergency landing at Masbate airport but crashed into the sea  about a kilometer from the runway.

Roxas said that assistance in deep dives continued to pour in, the latest being three foreign divers who joined government search team.

President Benigno Aquino III flew to Masbate on Sunday morning to oversee the search and rescue operations. He has remained in the area and was “very concerned with Secretary Jesse who he considers to be not just as a colleague or friend but a comrade….”

Roxas said that the President was “very sombre, serious” as the search for Robredo went full blast Monday.

Experts have calculated the areas where divers should check for possible signs of the plane wreckage based on the earlier findings of divers who had reached 150 feet, said Roxas.

“That is the last physical evidence, they will start there. Maritime experts have calculated tides and underwater current [and estimated that] the plane is on the seafloor and carried away by currents.”

An Australian diver belonging to a specialized diving team can search the area in 40 minutes and mark the areas with significant findings for divers from the local authorities to go back to explore further, he added.

“The first team will be the foreigners. The navy and coast guard divers are next in case there are sightings,” Roxas said.

“Hopefully coordinates would be plotted [when they] go back to do intensive work—so they won’t have to waste time looking around,” Roxas told reporters.

There is a ridge after the area being examined by the specialized divers which seemed to plunge down more than 300 meters or 1,000 feet, Roxas said.

But scouring the area manually, Roxas added, can no longer be done at this point, explaining a remote operated vehicle (ROV) will be needed to reach the area.

Authorities are still waiting for the ROV which can explore depths of 500 meters or 1,500 feet. The vehicle, offered by United States Ambassador Harry Thomas, was on its way to Masbate from Subic.

Roxas said that a team specializing in operating and interpreting readings from the ROV will also fly to Masbate by Tuesday morning.

Authorities are still conducting search and rescue operations, according to Roxas who said that aside from diving into areas pinpointed through sonar readings they also divided work searching for signs of survivors through air and surface search. Teams on vessels and aircraft will circle the area to check for debris, oil slicks or any indication of survivors from the plane crash.

Korean divers

Ten Korean technical divers from Cebu will join the search and rescue operations for Robredo.

Chief Superintendent Marcelo Garbo, Police Regional Director of Central Visayas, told INQUIRER.net that three of  the Korean tech divers  were picked up in Mactan by a helicopter and departed at 2:53 p.m.

The divers also specialize in deep dives, he said.

Earlier, three volunteer foreign divers from Malapascua who are experts in deep diving arrived in Masbate, Roxas said in his Twitter update. With a report from Frances Mangosing