2 PAF pilots survive crash

Two Philippine Air Force pilots parachuted to safety yesterday after their OV-10 Bronco attack plane crashed in Nasugbu, Batangas yesterday afternoon, a PAF spokesman said.

The plane was on its way from Palawan to Sangley Point in Cavite for regular maintenance when its engine malfunctioned and the plane went down, Lt. Owen Florenda said.

"OV-10 No. 681 was returning to Danilo Atienza Field in Sangley Point for regular maintenance following deployment at Puerto Princesa where it performed regular maritime patrol missions," the PAF said in a report posted on its website, www.paf.mil.ph.

The PAF said on its website that "no damage to property or injuries to people on the ground were reported."

The cause of the malfunction is still unknown, the PAF said.

PAF public information chief Maj. Restituto Padilla said the aircraft was piloted by Capt. Froilan Paras and 1Lt. Peter Paul Lim of the 15th Strike Wing.

Paras and Lim, he said, were able to bail out of the plane and parachute to safety before the aircraft hit the ground. The pilots suffered minor injuries.

Batangas police director Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay said Paras and Lim were brought to the Sangley Point Hospital for treatment of minor cuts and bruises in the head and lower limbs.

Paras’ parachute failed shortly before he hit the ground and he suffered leg injuries. According to the report posted on the PAF website, Lim is up and about.

Elements from the 740th Combat Group of the PAF’s 710th Special Operations Wing have secured the crash site.

PAF chief Lt. Gen. Nestor Santillan sent an investigation team to determine the cause of the crash and recover all available parts of the aircraft.

According to the PAF website, the OV-10 Bronco that crashed was among the first OV-10s received by the PAF from the US FMS pipeline in the late 1980’s

This crash is the second this year after an Air Force helicopter carrying TV journalists spun out of control and crash-landed on a mountain slope outside San Jose City in Nueva Ecija after being buffeted by strong winds in January.

Seven of the nine people aboard the Vietnam War-vintage Huey chopper — its two pilots, an army officer and four journalists — suffered minor injuries.

In October 2002, engine trouble forced a PAF attack helicopter to make an emergency landing in Davao City, barely a day after an Air Force plane crashed off Zamboanga City, also due to engine trouble.

Three people aboard the MG-520 attack helicopter were unhurt.

In May 2002, an aging PAF fighter jet exploded in midair and crashed into an empty school in Mabalacat, Pampanga, during war games with US forces.

Its lone pilot was killed and at least 16 people on the ground were injured, officials said.

A few days before that the fighter jet exploded, another PAF aircraft crashed during the Baliktan joint military exercises between Philippine and US forces.

A US Embassy spokesman said there were no American soldiers onboard the single-seater F-5A Freedom Fighter, a mainstay of the PAF.

The PAF’s aging aircraft fleet have been dubbed "widow-makers" because lack of parts has made a herculean task of maintaining these airplanes and helicopters.

The difficulties in obtaining parts for many of the PAF’s obsolete aircraft has forced the aircraft maintenance personnel to resort to cannibalizing parts from decommissioned aircraft, or salvaging and fitting whatever parts they can out of available materials.

This resourcefulness and talent for quick fixes and ingenuous solutions to the lack of parts has earned praise for the PAF maintenance crew from visiting United States soldiers who participated in the Balikatan exercises last year.

Many of the PAF aircraft are no longer airworthy and those that can still take to the skies are just barely able to do so.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines’s modernization program aims to upgrade the AFP’s equipment - particularly the PAF’s aircraft and the Navy’s aging fleet of ships.

During his state visit in October, US President George W. Bush has pledged to give the Philippines 30 UH-1H Huey helicopters, along with guns for the Army. So far, five of the 30 helicopters have been delivered, with the rest of the shipment still under negotiation.

Bush made this pledge in support of President Arroyo’s anti-terrorism campaign.