Mimaropa (Mindoro Marinduque Romblon Palawan) disaster authority chief Eugene Cabrera, quoting reports from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said the private chopper landed in Taytay, Palawan, at 3:25 p.m. Friday.
The chopper, with body number RPC 1207 (not RP 1027 as earlier reported by authorities), is owned by Prima Iluminata Ventures Inc., a trading company in Manila.
“All passengers who were employees of the company were all safe,” Cabrera said.
Chief Insp. Rolly Capoquian, police chief of Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro, earlier said they had received report from local aviation authorities at around 11 a,m. Friday that a helicopter was about to make an emergency landing in Barangay Tangkalan due to bad weather in Occidental Mindoro.
“But when we arrived in the area, the chopper had already left,” Capoquian said.
Capoquian said the chopper allegedly landed near Babuy River but left just after about 10 minutes when the river began to rise due to the heavy rain.
He said the last contact aviation authorities made with the chopper was before it left Barangay Barangay Tangkalan to say that it intended to land instead at the Mamburao airport in Barangay Payompon, about five kilometers away.