Cessna crash kills instructor, student

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines  – A Malaysian flight instructor and a Filipino student pilot were killed when their Cessna 152 plane crashed into a rice field in Magalang, Pampanga Friday night.

Police said several residents of Barangay Sta. Maria saw the two-seater light plane abruptly descending into the rice field, about three kilometers from the town hall.

Police quoted Capt. Benhur Gomez, president of the Omni Aviation Corp. Flying School here, as identifying the fatalities as Malaysian Wong Tian Yu and Alfred Christian de Leon.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, quoting Clark’s Flight Operations Briefing Service, said the plane, with registry number RP-C8839, took off at around 4:53 p.m. Friday.

When the Cessna 152 lost communication with Clark, another plane of Omni took off at around 5:40 p.m. to search for it. Moments later, the crash was confirmed.

A report quoted Capt. Amado Soliman, officer-in-charge of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board, as saying that the single-engine Cessna 152 was on a training flight.

Investigation showed there was no distress call received by Omni Aviation or the control tower base in Pampanga. – Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu, Rudy Santos