Another aging Vietnam era Huey helicopter that the Air Force has been longing to mothball but could not for lack of newer replacements crashlanded on a remote hillside in barangay Biasong, Balamban late Saturday afternoon but all nine people on board survived.
The UH-1H helicopter, the type that, along with the Phantom jet, served as the backbone of American air power in the Vietnam war, was on a routine training exercise and was about to head back to the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base when it developed engine trouble at about 5p.m.
The pilot and co-pilot, identified only as Captains Aranez and Mosomos, decided to go for an emergency landing on a hilltop but apparently lost control of the aircraft and it crashed into a hillside instead.
Luckily, the impact was cushioned by thick foliage and the four-man crew and their passengers escaped with their lives.
Captain Peter Esclava, duty officer at the 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing at the base, confirmed to The Freeman that the helicopter indeed carried passengers aside from the crew but could not say how many.
However, an ABS-CBN report Sunday evening said there were nine people on board the ill-fated aircraft at the time of the incident, suggesting that there were five passengers with the four-man crew when they met the accident.
Esclava was very sparing with details, claiming he was not the right person to talk about the incident.
But he denied reports the helicopter was part of the air security escort for Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, a former chief of the armed forces, who was in nearby Toledo City for the groundbreaking of a future power plant there at about the time of the accident.
Distress calls regarding the crash were sent by cellphone by the pilots themselves who, to their great fortune,discovered that there was a signal in the area.
Esclava said the Air Force promptly dispatched rescue teams on getting the calls.
Aside from the rescuers, investigators were also sent to see what happened.
Police regional director Ronald Roderos said the passengers and crew were taken from the site at about 11 p.m. Saturday and police from Balamban were deployed to secure the area.
As of press time, the Air Force has not grounded all similar types of aircraft.
The crash was the first for the Huey this year but last year, two similar helicopters crashed.
The first Huey crash last year was in Lilo-an, also during training. The Huey was doing precision landing and troop insertion training at a dried up rice paddy when its tail rotor hit the ground, throwing the aircraft into an uncontrollable spin.
Witnesses, including a group of nursing students doing community exposure who managed to videotape the incident with a hand camera, claimed two civilian passengers were also with the crew.
The witnesses described the passengers as a woman and a boy, but the Air Force denied this.
The Freeman tried to get in touch with the Air Force last night to find out if there is no prohibition against civilians getting on board military aircraft on training flights, but the calls were left unanswered. (/JST)