Pilot avoids house, goes down with plane

Sacrificing his own life, a pilot steered his plane away from a residential area before crashing to his death in a vacant lot in Parañaque City yesterday morning.

Capt. Paolo de Castro was hailed a hero for possibly saving dozens of lives when he managed to maneuver his stalled Cessna 206 light cargo plane away from a row of houses in Merville Subdivision before crashing into a nearby vacant lot.

Officials said De Castro called in for emergency landing shortly after taking off at Runway 13 of the Manila Domestic Airport to pick up a cargo of live fish from Palawan.

De Castro reportedly made a distress call to the control tower as his plane suddenly developed engine trouble and dropped altitude from 700 feet.

Julius Perlas, whose house was several meters away from the crash site, said he saw the six-seater plane nose dive and that it "exploded upon hitting the ground."

"I ran to the site and there was no chance for me to help because it was engulfed by fire," he said. "It was burning and at least one body was retrieved."

Officials said De Castro was the only person on board when the plane crashed at the vacant lot along New York Street, of the subdivision.

Air Transportation Office (ATO) chief Nilo Jatico said an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crash.

Unless the results of the probe reveal otherwise, officials are expected to present De Castro with a posthumous award for showing exemplary presence of mind.

Jatico noted De Castro was trying to avoid crashing the plane into a residential area despite developing engine trouble.

"He (De Castro) maneuvered the plane to the left because the runway runs straight into the residential area. After taking off, instead of taking the straight path and crashing, he swerved it to the left," an ATO official explained.

Another ATO official said he knew De Castro as an experienced pilot working for the Frontier Aviation Corp. (FAC).

"He’s an experienced pilot. He even worked as a personal pilot for a governor once," the ATO official said.

The ATO has ordered all aircraft of FAC grounded until the conclusion of the investigation.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) assistant general manger for security and emergency services Angel Atutubo said De Castro died instantly from the crash as the Cessna was a total wreck.

Atutubo hailed De Castro for maneuvering his ill-stricken plane away from a crowded area to save other people from certain death.

Parañaque City Mayor Florencio Bernabe said measures should have been in place to prevent the possibility of a plane crashing into a residential area.

Bernabe suggested the Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga as an alternative for chartered flights.

Moving out the flight operations, Bernabe claimed, will bring peace of mind to Parañaque residents near the airport.

"These private airline companies should see to it that their airplanes are well-maintained to avoid a repeat of the incident. It was fortunate that the pilot was able to have the plane hit a vacant lot though it’s sad that he died in the accident," Bernabe added.

Bernabe said the city government is coordinating all efforts to ensure the safety of residents living near the runway.

"However, city officials would have to see if this is feasible since there are so many things that should be considered here like if there are existing international laws that we might violate," the mayor’s spokesman Nelson Lacambra said. - with Rhodina Villanueva, AFP