PAF welcomes US help in search for missing trainer plane

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Air Force welcomed on Wednesday the United States’ assistance to the search and salvage operations for its ill-fated trainer plane that crashed off the waters in Mariveles, Bataan in May.

“That is a welcome development for us. Any help from an allied force such as the US enhances our interoperability with them as well as aids us in our capability especially in this retrieval operations,” Air Force spokesman Colonel Miguel Ernesto Okol said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.

A newspaper report said  that a US salvage ship, USS Safeguard (T-ARS 50) , has been diverted from Mindanao to Manila for the search of the missing plane.

USS Safeguard is one of the US vessels included to participate in joint Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT)  in Mindanao Sea for nine days which started Monday.

“In this year’s CARAT, we are not only conducting joint Naval and Maritime training exercises, but actual search and salvage operations for the missing PAF plane,” US CARAT commander Rear Admiral Thomas Carney was quoted in the report.

The report added that the ship was “equipped with high underwater detection capabilities, 25 US navy divers and 70 highly-trained personnel in rescue and salvage operations even in the high seas.”

Both search and retrieval operations from the Philippine Air Force and Philippine Navy have failed to locate the ill-fated plane and its pilot and co-pilot.

The Aermacchi SF260, bound for a proficiency flight in Corregidor, failed to return after its take off from Sangley Point, Cavite on May 18. Frances Mangosing