Retrieval operations for 2 pilots at sea off Masbate City ongoing

Captain Jessup Bahinting ,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aviatour Flying Inc.pose with one of his plane during interview with CDN business reporter last Oct. 4, 2010. CDN FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The retrieval operations for the two pilots who were with Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo when their Piper Seneca plane crashed off Masbate would resume at 10:30 am, Major General Eduardo del Rosario, head of task force Kalihim, said in a television interview.

Del Rosario said that a team of divers would tow the damaged Piper Seneca plane and and try to bring it to the surface so they could retrieve the bodies of Capt. Jessup Bahinting and Nepalese Kshitz Chand.

Del Rosario said the operation would be completed in 35 minutes and that by 11:15 pm, they could announce if the operations were successful or not.

“But we are confident that we will be successful,” Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario said the team would be composed of fiver Korean divers and two divers from the Philippine Navy. He said the team would attach a rope in the tail of the aircraft and try to lift the aircraft so they could extricate the bodies of the two pilots.

Del Rosario said that after the bodies would be recovered, they would then try to move the plane closer to shore.

Del Rosario added that the retrieval operations would be difficult since the divers would only not be using the tri-mix gas supply but ordinary gas tank, limiting their stay underwater.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas on Tuesday morning said that divers finally found the plane carrying Robredo and the two pilots 800 meters from shore at a depth of about 180 feet.

Robredo’s body is now back in his hometown in Naga City.