[wpgmappity id=”1453″]
BAYOMBONG, Philippines — Four people were killed after a plane conducting cloud-seeding operations crashed at a corn field in Bagabag town, Nueva Vizcaya province, on Sunday afternoon, police said.
Chief Inspector Chevalier Iringan, Bagabag police chief, said the RP C1974, a Baron fixed-wing airplane, crashed at 2:45 p.m. in Barangay (village) Villa Coloma in Bagabag.
Iringan said the flight plan showed the plane took off from the Cauayan City airport in nearby Isabela province and was flying over the watershed of the Magat River when it crashed.
The crash instantly killed all four on board, including the pilot identified in the manifest as Philip Jubane, as well as Christopher Evan Borja, Melvin Simangan and Leilanie Naga, all employees of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management.
Leonardo Afan, officer in-charge of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) at the Bagabag airport, the plane was commissioned by the SN Aboitiz Power-Magat Inc. to conduct four cloud-seeding missions over the Magat watershed.
SN Aboitiz, which operates the 360-megawatt Magat hydroelectric power plant in Ramon town in Isabela, resorted to cloud-seeding to augment the dwindling water supply of the plant’s reservoir.
The plane was reportedly on the last of its four flights – two on Saturday and two on Sunday – when the accident happened.
Iringan said residents saw a part of the plane fall off before it plunged.
He said police recovered the left wing of the aircraft some 150 meters from the wreckage that was found about 1.5 kilometers from the Bagabag airport.
Iringan said the police would leave the investigation of the crash to the CAAP.
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