Timeline: Massive, deep-sea search/rescue/retrieval operations

August 18, Saturday

Photo courtesy of Philippine Red Cross-Masbate

Between 4:20 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.—Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo called up his wife, Leni, by cell phone to say that the Piper Seneca plane he was riding was having engine problems. The call was abruptly cut.

4:29 p.m.—Senior Insp. June Paulo Abrazado, Robredo’s security aide, called Supt. Wally Pornillos, chief of the Office of Internal Security (OIS) of the Department of Interior and Local Government by cell phone, saying the plane was having engine trouble. He asked Pornillos to alert DILG people on the ground to a possible crash-landing at Masbate Airport.

4:30 p.m.—Capt. Jessup Bahinting, the pilot, called the airport’s air traffic control tower to ask permission for an emergency landing.

4:30 p.m.—A coastal resident, Joel Espinilla, 37, saw the plane wobble several minutes before it dropped into the sea, about 3 kilometers from the airport. Its tail stayed above water for about 15 minutes before it sank.

5 p.m.—Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete, Masbate Mayor Socrates Tuason and Red Cross personnel started search-and-rescue operations. Navy and Coast Guard vessels arrived soon after to join them.

5:30 p.m.—A fisherman plucked Abrazado from the sea. In Naga City, family members, friends and political allies of Robredo started converging at the Robredo home as news of the plane crash spread.

7 p.m.—Two US planes flew over the crash site but found no trace of the aircraft.

7:30 p.m.—The crowd keeping vigil at the Robredo home cheered and cried when they heard a radio report that Robredo was found alive by fishermen, but gloom descended when they learned that the news was erroneous. Frogmen stopped the search as they did not have adequate equipment for a night-time rescue.

August 19, Sunday

6 a.m.—President Aquino arrived with several Cabinet members on board a C-130 plane at Masbate Airport and immediately proceeded to La Villa Resort in Barangay Ibingay, about 3 km from the crash site. A huge tent was set up along the shoreline as command post.

8 a.m.—Robredo’s brother, Butch, arrived with a group of Naga officials on a C-130 from Legazpi City and joined the command conference presided by the President.

8:30 a.m.—At least 25 vessels from the Coast Guard, Navy, Philippine Air Force, Philippine National Police and local governments started searching an area about a kilometer from shore. A 2-km stretch of the coastline of the Masbate Bay was cordoned off for rescue volunteers.

9 a.m.—Coast Guard divers recovered a portion of the plane’s wing. It was dented in the middle.

10 a.m.—A pillow used by Robredo at home was dropped by another security aide, Paul Cabug, from a flatboat into the crash site on the belief that this will help locate a missing person.

10:30 a.m.—The search area was expanded to 4 km by 3 km at a depth of 40-67 meters.

1 p.m.—Sonar equipment from Cebu Yacht Club arrived.

4:30 p.m.—The flight manifest with the names of Robredo, Abrazado, Bahinting and copilot Kshitiz Chand was recovered in the seabed about 750 meters from shore. Divers also found apparent skid marks that could mean the plane wreckage was being tossed by underwater current.

5:45 p.m.—The President left the command post but stayed in Masbate City to continue overseeing the search-and-rescue activities.

6 p.m.—Deep-sea search was suspended, but surface and sonar searches continued all night.

August 20, Monday

10:15 a.m. —In Naga, Robredo’s oldest daughter, Aika, and her cousin, Gaile, met journalists and supporters for three minutes and thanked them for their presence.

1 p.m. —Foreign technical divers, or professional divers and instructors who could dive to at most 250 meters, joined the search. They came from Malaspascua Island in Cebu province, a popular dive spot.

2:30 p.m.—The technical divers came back with a video of the likely spot of the wreckage. No details were released pending analysis of the footage.

3:30 p.m.—After talking with the foreign dive experts, the President left on board a C-130 for Naga to meet with Robredo’s family and brief them on the ongoing search. He later proceeded to Manila.

5 p.m.—The divers returned from another fruitless search.

August 21, Tuesday

7:25 a.m.—The foreign divers saw the wreckage at a depth of 180 feet and about 800 meters from the coast.

7:45 a.m.—They found three bodies inside the plane—one near the door and two at the cockpit.

8:15 a.m.—One of the bodies was identified as Robredo’s. Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon