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All 131 confirmed dead in plane crash in southern Philippines |
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April 20, 2000
SAMAL, Philippines, APR 19 (UNB/AP) - All 131 people on board an Air Philippines passenger plane that crashed Wednesday in the southern Philippines have been confirmed dead, making it the country's worst aviation disaster, airline officials said.
The plane, flight 541 from Manila, was unable to land on its first approach to Davao city because another plane was on the runway, air traffic controllers said.
Air Philippines spokeswoman Leah Sison said all of the 124 passengers and seven crew aboard the plane were confirmed dead.
She said the airline had been told by the Australian Embassy that some Australians were among the passengers. There were no immediate reports of other foreigners.
The plane, a Boeing 737-200 manufactured 22 years ago, crashed into a foggy coconut grove on nearby Samal island as it prepared to make another approach from the opposite direction, air traffic controllers said.
Visibility was intermittent, the officials told The Associated Press. The Davao airport does not have full equipment for instrument landings, and visual landings had been briefly suspended several minutes earlier, they said.
Smoke from the crash could be seen from Davao, a thriving commercial center.
The plane was totally destroyed except for a portion of its tail section, which was still standing against a coconut tree. A half a day after the early morning crash, the wreckage continued to burn and no intact bodies had been found, rescuers said.
A priest sprinkled water over charred remains as he delivered last rites.
"With an impact like this, it's impossible to have any survivors," said Brig. Gen. Benjamin Defensor Jr., who helped supervise rescuers.
If so, the crash would be the worst in Philippine history.
By late afternoon, rescuers had recovered the plane's voice recorder and filled 81 bags with remains, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said.
The flight data recorder was apparently still buried under the smoldering debris, officials said.
Planes, buses and ferries throughout the predominantly Catholic country were jammed Wednesday because of the start of Easter holidays, in which many Filipinos return to their hometowns.
The crash was the country's third major transportation accident in a week. Last Wednesday, a cargo ship carrying more than 200 illegal passengers capsized after leaving southern Sulu province, killing more than 140 people.
On Monday, a passenger ship struck a fish trap and sank south of Manila. All 137 people aboard were rescued.
"It is sickening. It is really saddening," Transportation Secretary Vicente Rivera said of the accidents. The government, he said, would try to determine how to make transportation safer in the country.
The plane was given a normal maintenance check before taking off and no abnormalities were found, the official said.
"I think it's too early to tell" the cause of the crash, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said. "But there were indications there was cloud cover in the area, a low ceiling."
Several beach resorts are located on Samal, a sparsely populated island about 980 kilometers (610 miles) southeast of Manila.
At Davao's airport, relatives cried and hugged each other as Red Cross personnel tried to comfort them.
Air Philippines, which began operations in 1996, is one of a number of new airlines created since the industry was deregulated several years ago. The majority owner of financially troubled Philippines Airlines, Lucio Tan, is widely believed to have purchased a controlling interest in Air Philippines last year.
Several of the new airlines use elderly planes and have been dogged with safety- and maintenance-related problems. Air Philippines has not had a previous crash.
In 1998, a Cebu Pacific DC-9 jet crashed near the top of a fog-shrouded mountain in the southern Philippines, killing all 104 people aboard in the Philippines' worst previous air disaster.
Boeing began producing the 737-200 model in 1966 and built 1,114 of them over the next 22 years before ending production. The plane can carry up to 130 passengers.
Boeing spokesman Sean Griffin said the Air Philippines jet was the 508th 737-200 made.
According
to the latest information available, it had flown 79,522 flights totaling
68,475 hours, about average for a plane of that vintage, Griffin said.
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