Two Philippine air force aviators were killed in a crash Wednesday, while rescuers were searching for another plane that went missing the previous day with six people on board, authorities said.

During a training, the military's SF260 Marchetti plane plummeted onto a rice paddy in Pilar town near Manila, killing the pilot and another aviator, Bataan province's Police Chief Colonel Romell Velasco told AFP.

"It's a total wreck. The wings were separated," Velasco said after visiting the crash site.

"No one could survive this," he said, adding that the bodies have been recovered.

An investigation to determine the cause of the "mishap" is under way, air force spokesperson Colonel Consuelo Castillo told reporters.

In June 2021, the military temporarily grounded its entire Black Hawk fleet after an S-70i helicopter crashed during a night-time training, killing all six on board.

In a separate incident in the country's mountainous north, a Cessna plane carrying a pilot and five passengers failed to arrive at a remote airstrip on Tuesday, the Philippines' civil aviation authority said.

The missing plane had taken off from Cauayan airport on a route that would have taken it across the Sierra Madre mountain range, said Eric Apolonio, spokesperson for the industry regulator.

Air traffic controllers initiated a "communication search" after the plane did not respond half an hour after it was supposed to land, he said in a statement.

The search and rescue operation was temporarily halted by poor weather on Wednesday, he added.

Related Links
Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

NASA goes live with surrogate eVTOL flight tests in Texas
Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Jan 25, 2023
On a rainy October day, a Bell Textron 407GXi helicopter lifted off from the Hillwood Alliance Texas Flight Test Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and began making its way to the University of North Texas Discovery Park in Denton, about 25 miles away. It might have looked like a normal flight during its buzz over the trees, but for a team of NASA-led researchers, the helicopter was standing in for a next-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft - and showing them how such an ai ... read more