CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela – The wreckage of the Cessna plane missing since Jan. 24 in Isabela was found on Thursday, March 9, in Barangay Ditarum, Divilacan, but there were no survivors, the Incident Management Team (IMT) confirmed.
The Army identified the fatalities as pilot Capt. Eleazar Mark Joven and passengers Tommy Manday, Val Kamatoy, Mark Eiron Seguerra, Xam Seguerra, and Josefa Perla España.
The IMT has shifted from search and rescue to retrieval operation after 44 days of searching a wide area east of this province.
Responders will converge for the operation and will travel by boat to reach the crash site and retrieve the victims.
The victims' relatives have been informed, Constante Foronda, head of the IMT, said.
Responders said parts of the plane were scattered in the crash site and clothes of the victims were hanging on trees. One of them was seen without a head.
They said weather permitting, their remains will arrive here in three days.
Their bodies will be turned over to Scene-of-the-Crime operatives for processing.
The Cessna C206 plane with tail number RPC 1174 went missing after leaving the Cauayan City Airport for Maconacon, Isabela at 2:15 p.m. It was expected to arrive at 2:45 p.m.
Its last transmission with air traffic controllers was four minutes later at 2:19 p.m. in Naguilian.
A report said the weather was clear when the plane left the airport but the wind around Sierra Madre was "turbulent."
Responders were composed of the military, police, Bureau of Fire Protection, local government units of Divilacan, Isabela and Maconacon, and volunteers.
It was the third aircraft that crashed in the country since January.
On Feb. 18, a Cessna plane went down near the crater of Mayon Volcano. Four persons onboard were killed and their bodies were retrieved on March 2.
On Wednesday, March 1, a medical chopper with five passengers, including a patient and a nurse, on board crashed in the vicinity waters between Brooke's Point and Balabac in Palawan.