File photo of a Philippine Air Force OV-10 from Balikatan 2012. ELMER BADILLA/InterAksyon.com
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) has issued an order temporarily disallowing all its OV-10 aircraft from flying after one such plane belonging to its 15th Strike Wing crashed Sunday night.
All OV-10s--a surveillance aircraft equipped with weapons systems such as rockets and bombs--have been ordered grounded pending investigation of the latest incident involving the same plane with tail 630 that went down off Palawan during a "night proficiency flight" on Sunday, PAF spokesman Col. Miguel Ernesto Okol said.
“As per instructions by our PAF chief Lt. Gen. dela Cruz, all our OV-10s are temporarily grounded. The 15th Strike Wing has also convened a board of inquiry that will lead the crash investigation. But as of now we’re concentrating efforts for the search-and-rescue of our two pilots,” Okol said.
Search-and-rescue teams from PAF, Philippine Navy, and Philippine Coast Guard are scouring a 50-nautical mile radius of the crash site.
Okol said the distance from the runway of Puerto Princesa City, Palawan where it took off together with another OV10 at around 6:30 p.m. Sunday was only about five nautical miles.
“All our aircraft have tracking devices that is why we will know exactly the location of the crash site. When the OV-10 went down last night, alam na natin yung (we already know the) location where. It’s just about five nautical miles from Runway 27,” he said.
No 'mayday' call
Two pilots of the missing OV-10 Bronco plane did not issue a “mayday” or distress call before its communications totally went off, Air Force spokesman Okol said.
“Ang last transmitting niya is on final approach. Wala siyang distress [call], wala siyang mayday. So, we’re still finding out [kung] bakit (why that is so),” Okol said. “Our search teams have already recovered parts of the plane but there is still no sight of the two pilots."
He refused to give the names of the two pilots in “accordance with regulations.”
In a report, Commander Armand Balilo, spokesman of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), said its team was able to recover the “nose” of the plane.
The plane took off the runway of the Western Command (Westcom) based in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan in tandem with another OV-10 from the 15th Strike Wing for a routine flight at around 6:30 p.m. Sunday. It failed to return at the expected arrival time of around 8 p.m.
Okol said the pilots were on a Night Flight Capability Training Mission, which lasts for 50 minutes.
The OV-10 Bronco Aircraft is from the 15th Strike Wing of the Philippine Air Force, according to PAF’s 570th Composite Tactical Wing.
Earlier in the day, Lieutenant General Rustico Guerrero said: "Lahat ng barko natin naka-deploy na (All our ships have been deployed) to search the area, and we are hoping to recover the pilots today."
Guerrero also appealed to all the local residents in nearby coastal areas to report any sightings of the aircraft or its pilots.
Only eight OV10s left
With another one stricken out from the air fleet, PAF has only 8 units left.
But Okol said, “We have a squadron of OV10s and that is distributed around the country.”
Okol immediately dismissed speculations the aircraft might have ventured into the disputed Spratly Islands.
In November 9, 2012, an OV-10 (with tail 801) was about to land at the runway of the Edwin Andrews Airbase in Zamboanga City when it crashed.
The two pilots survived.
Investigation showed the aircraft’s engine malfunctioned.
'OV-10 crash latest in a string of deadly accidents'
The crash is the latest in a string of deadly accidents involving surplus and often old foreign aircraft acquired by the Philippine military.
The air force's fleet of 30 Broncos were acquired from the United States in 1991 and Thailand in 2004.
Developed in the 1960s as a counter-insurgency aircraft by the US Air Force, the Broncos can carry heavy ammunition for a few hours in the air.
They are used primarily for close air support missions against Muslim and communist insurgents, mainly on the southern island of Mindanao, Okol said.
However, they are also used to monitor the archipelago's extensive coastal areas, as well as for search and rescue missions in the disaster-prone Philippines, he added.
Okol would not say exactly how old the crashed plane was, but insisted that all of the Broncos were in good condition.
"They have received a good number of upgrades, and we maintain them very well," he said.
The Philippine military is among the most poorly equipped in the region, and past modernization efforts have consisted mostly of surplus hardware acquired from its traditional ally, the United States.
In May, two pilots were killed when an air force trainer plane crashed north of Manila.
In 2010, eight air force personnel and a civilian were killed when a light cargo airplane crashed in the southern city of Cotabato.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/64744/all-ov-10s-grounded-following-bronco-crash-off-palawan---air-force
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