EMERGENCY LANDING. Personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard aboard an aluminum motorboat guard the twin-engine, six-seater Viper Seneca plane that crashed Tuesday morning (July 7, 2020) into the shore of Barangay Sinunuc, Zamboanga City. An official of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP)-Zamboanga, however, clarified that the pilot made an emergency landing after the plane incurred engine failure. (PNA photo by Ely E. Dumaboc)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – A trainer’s plane of the Dumaguete City-based ROYHLE Flight Training Academy crashed Tuesday into the sea in Barangay Sinunuc, west of this city, a police official said.
Capt. Edwin Duco, Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) information officer, said the plane landed on the waters around 9:30 a.m. near the shore a few minutes after it took off from the Zamboanga International Airport (ZIA).
All of the four people aboard, including three foreigners, were rescued by tricycle driver Mufri Yusop who happened to pass by the area and saw the plane going down on the water.
“I stopped my tricycle at the side of the road when I noticed the plane was descending to the sea after making a turn towards the left,” Yusop said in the dialect.
The rescued passengers were identified as Suramya khanal, 28, a Nepalese student pilot; Capt. Jyothis John Pulinthanam, 27, an Indian pilot; Jemy Chacko Domen, 34, Indian flight instructor; and, Razel Dulay, 27, a Filipino aircraft mechanic. All of them are from the ROYHLE Flight Training Academy.
They were taken to the office of CAAP-Zamboanga after a health check-up by medical emergency responders.
However, Antonio Alfonso, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP)-Zamboanga manager, clarified that the plane did not crash but did an “emergency landing at sea.”
Alfonso said the twin-engine, six-seater Viper Seneca plane “incurred a single-engine failure, forcing the pilot to maneuver and land near the shore.”
He said the plane with tail number RP-C834 was returning to Dumaguete City at the time of the incident.
The plane flew earlier Tuesday in a convoy with another trainer plane here from Dumaguete City.
The other trainer plane was delivered to a local flying school. (PNA)
