MANILA, Philippines - A trainer jet upgraded to a fighter plane by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) crashed yesterday afternoon near a beach resort in Bagac, Bataan, instantly killing the pilot and rendering his co-pilot unconscious.
Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, commander of the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), said the S-211 trainer jet took off from the Clark Freeport in Pampanga.
Pangilinan said the aircraft was piloted by Maj. Ephraim Gatus Suyom, valedictorian of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1997, along with the co-pilot identified only as a certain De Leon.
Authorities recovered the body of Suyom while De Leon was rushed to the nearest hospital.
“The aircraft disintegrated upon impact. Witnesses said that they just saw the aircraft plunge into the water but did not explode. The impact of the crash broke the plane into several parts,” Pangilinan said.
Army troops from the 24th Infantry Battalion have been deployed to secure the crash site despite the heavy downpour in the area.
The fighter plane was cruising over the shorelines of Bataan when, for yet unknown reason, it suddenly plunged into the sea around 100 meters from shore near the Stella Mariz Beach Resort, Barangay Banawang, Bagac at about 3:15 p.m., witnesses told local police.
The local police recovered from the crash site a wallet containing an Air Force identification card bearing the name of Suyom.
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“We are still waiting for confirmed information,” Pangilinan said, adding a search and rescue helicopter from Villamor Air Base was en route to the crash site.
PAF spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Okol confirmed the accident, saying the aircraft took off from Clark at about 2:45 p.m. “as part of proficiency flight tests.”
However, he declined to issue any official statement on the mishap pending an investigation.
The PAF has been heavily dependent on S-211 trainer jets converted into fighter planes for air patrol following the decommissioning of the F-5 fighter interceptors.
“With the decommissioning of the F-5s, the PAF has no other recourse but to depend on the Italian-made S-211 jet-trainer planes to patrol Philippine skies,” a senior Air Force official said.
Yesterday’s mishap reduced to three the remaining S-211 fighter planes now in the PAF’s inventory after another unit also crashed last year in Concepcion, Tarlac while on a routine training flight.
The sub-sonic S-211 is primarily designed as a trainer aircraft and not as jet fighter-interceptor. Its combat capability is very limited. It cannot intercept hostile supersonic planes that may intrude into Philippine airspace.
After the Second World War, the PAF was second to none in Southeast Asia with some 100 jetfighters in its arsenal.
For many years, the PAF had maintained that air superiority among neighboring countries until it was overtaken by Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, which have modernized their air forces with F-16 jetfighters.
The PAF modernization program has been stuck due to lack of funds.