FINDING DEBRIS. A boy points to pieces of material that residents claim are part of the Israel-made Hermes 900 drone that crashed in Barangay Pualas, Baungon town, Bukidnon, Saturday (May 28, 2022). The Philippine Air Force on Monday says it will not remove the debris and parts of the drone at the crash site until it finishes its investigation. (PNA photo by Jigger Jerusalem)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Philippine Air Force (PAF) said Monday the scattered parts of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone that crashed in Bukidnon province will not be removed until the investigation is over.
Lt. Col. Harold Hernando, commander of PAF’s Tactical Operations Group-10, said this is a standard protocol in order to identify the factors that caused the Israeli-made Hermes 900 UAV to malfunction mid-air.
“The crash site has no houses in the vicinity and there are no people,” Hernando told reporters in an interview.
The UAV crashed in Barangay Pualas, Baungon town, and investigation is ongoing as government troops continue to secure the crash site despite Monday's rainy weather.
According to the PAF, the UAV took off from the Lumbia airport to perform a “functional flight check” but it “lost contact” during descent shortly before noon on Saturday.
It was not immediately known if the UAV was damaged beyond repair, but Hernando said the drone did not cause injury to any civilian when it crash-landed.
Col. Menard Mariano, PAF spokesperson, said a combined team of police officers and Army and Air Force personnel is keeping watch over the UAV.
“The UAV is still in the area, this is being secured by the Army, the police, and the Air Force,” Mariano said in a text message Sunday.
Witnesses said the UAV had circled the several times in the air then it began to nosedive, and grazed a tree before crash-landing into a thickly vegetated ravine just a few hundred meters away from a mountain resort in Pualas.
Jonie Binalhay, 30, a driver of a construction company, said he and other workers were taking a break when they saw the drone going down.
“When it got nearer to the ground, we can hear the sound of its engine. It flew past us then we heard a booming thud when it crashed. We didn’t hear any explosion or see any fire or smoke emanating from it,” Binalhay said in the vernacular.
Hernando said they will retrieve the crashed drone “the soonest possible time” and to bring it back to the Lumbia airfield.
He also said the drone has been at the Lumbia airfield, but it “has been deployed here for a while.”
Based on information available online, the Elbit Systems Hermes 900 is an Israeli medium-size, multi-payload, medium-altitude long-endurance UAV designed for tactical missions.
The website Israel Defense said the PAF received in August 2020 full delivery of nine Hermes 900 UAVs and four Hermes 450 UAVs as part of a contract worth approximately USD175 million. (PNA)
