(UPDATE) Pilot, student slightly hurt as trainer aircraft crashes in Oriental Mindoro

BATANGAS CITY, Batangas, Philippines — A pilot and his student were slightly hurt when a trainer aircraft owned by a private flying school crashed in the waters of Calapan Bay in the City of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, on Tuesday, police said. The aircraft, owned by the Sapphire International Aviation Academy based in Sucat, Parañaque City, went down off the coast of the village of Lazareto at 9:50 a.m., Superintendent Jonathan Paguio, Calapan city police chief, said. He said rescuers rushed the pilot, identified as Angelo Serna, and his  student pilot, Mark Mendoza, to the Maria Estrella Hospital in the downtown area of the city. Paguio said the pilot and the student survived with only minor injuries. He said personnel from the Philippine National Police-Maritime unit in the city and from the Philippine Coast Guard have been conducting retrieval operation and investigating the cause of the crash. City of Calapan Mayor Arnan Panaligan said he would suspend the permit of the Sapphire flying school branch to operate in the city. He said he would also ask the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to ground the trainer planes of Sapphire and evaluate the airworthiness of their planes.  SFM