Nearly a year after he went missing in the ill-fated crash of the OV 10 Bronco he was co-piloting with Maj. Jonathan Ybanez, the remains of Lt. Abner Trust Nacion was finally retrieved off the waters of Palawan Friday afternoon.
This after the Philippine Air Force (PAF)-created Task Force Bronco (TFB) confirmed that it had located his remains early Friday afternoon around 8 kilometers east northeast of the Puerto Princesa City Airport (PPCA) runway.
Designated spokesperson Col. Herminio Yuson confirmed to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an exclusive interview that Nacion was found by the TFB with the help of swagmen from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) near the area where Ybanez was also found early December last year.
“The task force never stopped in looking for Lt. Nacion, and now, we would be able to put a closure to this, especially his family that also never stopped hoping with us that he would be found,” said Yuson.
Yuson said the pilot’s family had already been informed about the recent development, and the task force is ready to welcome any representative, who would come to fetch and bring him home.
“As soon as we’ve arranged the aircraft that will take his body home, he will go home so that he can be rejoined with his family. Finally, they can lay him to rest,” Yuson told the PNA.
The PAF colonel said more than the grid coordinates they followed, the sonar gears that were used, and the divers that continued to participate in the search mission, it was the “calm sea of the summer season that helped” them to find Nacion.
“We are thankful that the sea was calm… it helped us in the task force to find him. All these months, he was within the vicinity of the crash site waiting for us,” Yuson said.
Nacion and Ybanez were killed when the OV 10 Bronco they were piloting crashed off the runway off the PPCA following a night flying proficiency mission.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=651238
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