Retrieval operations for 2 pilots suspended due to strong undercurrents

Tek Bahadur Chand and Damand Chand, father and uncle of Kshitiz Chand, Bahinting’s co-pilot, arrived in Masbate City. CDN PHOTO/ FE MARIE DUMABOC

MASBATE CITY—The team of divers initially deployed at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to retrieve the two pilots and the wreckage of the ill-fated twin-engine Piper Seneca have suspended their dive, according to Navy Captain Rommel Galang.

“We’re waiting for the right timing,” said Galang at noon Wednesday, expecting the dive to retrieve the bodies of Capt. Jessup Bahanting, owner of the plane and CEO of Aviatour Air in Cebu, and Nepalese copilot Kshitiz Chand to resume at 1 p.m., or as soon as weather permits.

Galang said that the sea undercurrents are “too strong” that even experienced divers from the Navy would not dare venture into.

The dive was suspended after a “passing shower,” the Navy’s term for sudden downpour accompanied by gusty wind.

 
Galang is the acting commander of the Navy Forces in Southern Luzon.

The Navy divers deployed for search and retrieval operations here had been trained when he was still chief of the Naval Special Operations Warfare Group in Southern Luzon.

 
He confirmed that the pilots are still trapped in the plane’s cockpit five days after the light plane crashed 800 meters from the shoreline off Masbate City.