BAGUIO CITY — Authorities are still racing against time to find the Cessna light plane two weeks after it went missing after leaving the Cauayan City Airport for Maconacon, Isabela on 24 January 2023.
At least 301 people are scouring the mountains of Sierra Madre in the territories of Isabela provinces in search for the ill-fated RP-C1174 which took off from Cauayan Domestic Airport but failed to reach its destination at Maconacon Airport in Isabela.
To recall, members of the Incident Management Team were able to locate the possible “site Alpha” or the location of the plane at the area around 10 kilometers from Maconacon Airport on 28 January.
IMT-Isabela spokesperson Joshua Hapinat on Friday disclosed that the 301 search and rescue personnel are composed of the military, police, Bureau of Fire Protection, local government units of Divilacan, Isabela and Maconacon, and volunteers.
A police Special Action Force unit from Benguet and 10 BFP personnel traveled to Divilacan also on Friday to help in the search.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development, meantime, sent 200 boxes of food packs for the search teams.
The search was made difficult because of the poor weather condition in the area. On 9 February 2023, the Air Force was not able to fly its search helicopters because of the gloomy skies.
According to the Cagayan Provincial Office, the IMT is coordinating with concerned people in employing six “trained scent-tracking dogs” from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to help in the search efforts. The said dogs will be accompanied by 12 handlers in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
In other developments, Batong Labang Barangay Captain Aldrich Tindungan has asked for help from his constituents and said it was easy to convince the hunters and farmers to join the search.
On Thursday, it took ten men living in Batong Labang only half a day to carry more than 50 kilos of food to the troops camping for days inside Sierra Madre.
“The other barangays are helping too; we are getting help from everywhere. There are about 25 of them. We in Batong Labang already know the mountain well. Many have volunteered…they are pitying the crash victims, especially those who saw the smoke,” Tindungan said.