BAGUIO CITY — The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has set out on an in-depth investigation into the cause of the crash of a Piper plane in the Sierra Madre mountain range in Isabela province last Nov. 30, authorities said on Monday.
CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio said their investigators are going to retrieve three important pieces of evidence at the crash site: the emergency locator transmitter, the engine and the propeller.
He said these are crucial in determining what really happened to the small aircraft that killed the pilot and his passenger.
On Sunday morning, the body of passenger Emma Escalante was sighted by K9 trackers 200 meters from the area where the plane crashed. Three days earlier, the remains of the pilot, Captain Levy N. Abul, II, were found near the crash site.
The Piper plane took off from the Cauayan Airport in Isabela at 9:30 a.m. and was expected to land at Palanan Airport, also in Isabela. But mid-flight, it sent a distress message around 11:08 a.m. until its last recorded blip was on the radar was traced at 29.09 nautical miles east of Cauayan Airport. — Artemio A. Dumlao