US sends surveillance plane to help search for missing GenSan, Sarangani fishermen

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 13): US sends surveillance plane to help search for missing GenSan, Sarangani fishermen

The United States government has dispatched one its maritime surveillance aircraft to help in search and rescue operations for hundreds of fishermen from this city and nearby Sarangani who remain missing after after typhoon Pablo last week. City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio, chair of the Task Force Maritime Search and Rescue-SarGen (Sarangani/General Santos City), said Thursday the US embassy in Manila has commissioned a P-3C Orion aircraft of the US Navy. The aircraft is to help search for possible survivors along high seas off the Pacific Ocean and Indonesia’s territorial waters.

She said the deployment of the P-3C Orion aircraft was facilitated by officials of the US Agency for International Development, which has been assisting the relief operations for the victims of Pablo Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental. “This will be a big help to us since the aircraft will enable the rescue teams to cover a wider portion of the search area at the soonest possible time,” the mayor said in a press briefing.....

..... Navy Cdr. Lued Lincuna, task force spokesperson, said the P-3C Orion is very ideal for maritime search and rescue operations as it has longer endurance or loiter time when compared to other aircraft. He said they did not consider utilizing rescue choppers for the operation since their normal loiter time could only last around three hours. “Its (P-3C Orion) flight time could last 16 hours and it could fly closer to the search area being a fixed wing aircraft,” he told PNA. Lincuna said Philippine Navy and Air Force personnel are quite familiar with the P-3C Orion since they were used by the US Navy during the past Pagsasama and joint Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training or CARAT exercises in the country.

Lincuna said the aircraft, which was dispatched from a US Navy base in Japan, arrived at the Philippine Air Force’s Villamor air base in Pasay City Thursday morning and will fly to Davao City later in the day. He said the P-3C Orion will be temporarily based at the Davao City airport to facilitate easier refueling for the aircraft and the billeting of its pilots.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=479686