9 killed as plane crashes in Calamba village resort

CALAMBA CITY, Laguna -- Nine passengers on board a plane were killed when it exploded mid-air and crashed into a hotspring resort village in Barangay Pansol here Sunday afternoon.

Lt. Col. Jacinto Malinao, Calamba City chief of police, said in an interview that nine passengers of the 11-seater Lion Air B350 Beechcraft twin-engine plane, including the pilot and co-pilot, were all killed.

The plane came from Dipolog City and was transporting a patient to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

Malinao said the nine passengers were pilot Capt. Jesus Hernandez; co-pilot First Officer Lino Cruz Jr.; Dr. Garret Garcia; nurses Kirk Eoin Badiola and Yamato Togawa; Ryx Gil Laput; Raymond Bulacja, FM; patient Tom Carr and the patient’s wife Erma Carr.

Several others were injured in the crash. The injured victims were identified as John Rey Roca, 19 and Malou Roca, 49, caretakers at Agojo Resort where the plane crashed. They were taken to Jose P. Rizal District Hospital.

Malinao said the medical evacuation plane departed Dipolog City airport around 1:40 p.m. and was bound for Manila when it exploded in mid-air and plunged into the private resort at past 3 p.m.

He said the Police Crime Laboratory Office 4A is now processing the identities of the recovered bodies in coordination with the airline officer at the crash site.

Jeffrey Rodriguez, Calamba City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office chief, said villagers alerted them on the plane crash, with the aircraft’s burning debris searing through the Agojo Resort building inside Barangay Pansol’s Miramonte Subdivision.

Other plane debris were strewn at the nearby Sun City Resort and at the village “poblacion” residential area.

As of 8:16 p.m. Sunday, Rodriguez said the nine bodies that were charred beyond recognition had been retrieved from the ill-fated plane’s wreckage.