Cebu student crashes in skydiving mishap
He had never done skydiving before but that didn’t stop Louie Raymond Pestaño from trying it out.
Unfortunately for him, his first skydiving attempt turned out to be his last.
The 24-year-old Pestaño died after his parachute malfunctioned during a 3,500-foot jump at barangay Airport in Ormoc City, Leyte, last Thursday afternoon.
His remains arrived on board the MV Wonderful Stars vessel of Roble Shipping in Pier 3 of the Cebu City port at 4 p.m. yesterday.
The family and friends of Pestaño were at the port area to receive his casket brought out of the vessel.
Pestaño’s casket was placed in a wooden crate with white flowers placed on top of it.
Among the family members at the port were his father, retired police Chief Supt. Orlando Pestano, and some of his relatives.
Orlando was the former director of the Philippine National Police (PNP) finance service and a former provincial police director of Capiz City.
Louie, the second of three children, was found in a rice paddy 150 meters away from the airport runway.
The force of his crash caused a two-foot deep imprint on the ground.
Pestaño, a resident of Cebu City, was a medical student of the University of Sto. Tomas in Manila.
He went to Ormoc to learn how to skydive from members of the Cebu Parachute Club.
The club was scheduled to do a skydiving exhibition in the morning of Oct. 20 as part of Ormoc City’s 64th Charter Day celebration.
He and engineer Gil Gantuangco, an Ormoc Builders Association member, were supposed to do a beginner’s jump at an altitude of 3,500 feet at 2:20 p.m. on Thursday.
But Gantuangco got cold feet after the briefing.
Only Pestaño pushed through and jumped off from a Cessna plane with his instructor, identified only as Gary.
Witnesses said they saw Pestaño whirl in the air after the jump.
But his main parachute didn’t open when he pulled it, said barangay Punta chairman Glenn Alvin.
He said Pestaño may have lost consciousness while spinning and was thus unable to pull his reserve chute. He fell into the middle of a rice field.
Resident Dennis Omega said he heard a “bomb-like explosion” and went into the rice field to investigate, only to see Pestaño’s body.
The Ormoc rescue team brought him to Ormoc Sugarcane Planter’s Association-Farmer’s Medical Center, where physicians declared him dead.
Relatives, family and friends wept and hugged one another on seeing the wooden crate carrying Pestaño’s coffin.
The victim’s father Orlando rode the vehicle that bore his son’s coffin to the St. Peter’s Funeral Homes in barangay Day-as, Cebu City.
Pestaño’s remains was checked by the embalmer in the morgue and later brought to the family home in barangay Labangon, Cebu City, at 6 p.m.
White flowers were sent by the elder Pestaño’s friends in the military and police, including one sent by Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo Jr., Police Regional Office-7 (PRO-7) chief. The family declined to be interviewed.
In an interview, 1st Lt. Til Andal of the Civil Military Operations division of the Philippine Air Force’s 560th Air Base Wing said skydiving and similar private-, commercial- and government-sponsored air shows should be cleared by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
He said skydivers and pilots must be cleared and should present to CAAP documentary requirements like a flight plan, certificates from a skydiving school, physical examination records and insurance. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza with an Inquirer report
