Residents rescue occupants of plane that crashed at sea
ZAMBOANGA CITY — A twinengine six-seater training aircraft crash landed at sea along the coastal boulevard of Sinunuc early Tuesday, July 7, after it suffered engine trouble a few minutes after it took off from the Zamboanga International Airport here.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP-Zamboanga) General Manager Antonio Alfonso said the training aircraft, a white piper plane Seneca with body number RP C-834, arrived in this city at 7:30am, delivering another training aircraft for Southern City Colleges.
After almost two hours, at 9:30 a.m., the plane left ZIA enroute to Dumaguete City with three foreigners on board and a Filipino.
Alfonaso identified those onboard as Nepalese national Suramya Khanal, 27, and student pilot; Indian national Jyothis John Pulinthanam, 27; Indian national Jemy Chacko Domen, 34, instructor; and Filipino Razel Y. Dulay, 27, mechanic. All of them were residents of Dumaguete City.
The passengers were all employees and students of the Royal
Plane Academy located in Dumaguete City, it was reported.
According to Alfonso, they received a messaged from the pilot, informing them that one of the plane’s engine was having trouble.
The pilot immediately adopted emergency measures that allowed the plane to land at sea, instead of a populated area in the city.
According to witnesses at the coastal area, they saw the plane flying low before crash-landing in the waters off Sinunuc.
After it crashed, one of its passengers was able to exit from the plane cabin, leaving behind the three others inside the plane.
Some of those at shore shouted at him to swim, but he replied: ”I can’t swim. Please help me”
It was at this point that one of the bystanders, Jeffrey Yusop Akanad, dove into the water, and swam towards the ill-fated plane, which was, by then, slowly drifting farther towards open water.
Soon after, other Muslim residents swam to the crash site, and helped Akanad open the plane’s cabin where they saw the pilot still trapped in his seat.