A Cessna 152-type plane with two persons on board crash-landed near the runway of Binalonan Airport in Pangasinan province, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines reported on Tuesday.
CAAP chief information officer and spokesperson Eric Apolonio said the trainer aircraft, owned and operated by WCC Aviation, crashed in Barangay Linmansangan, a few seconds after takeoff around 7:30 a.m.
He added the agency immediately sent a team from Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board led by investigators Rommel Ronda and Harry Panadero to conduct a probe at the crash site.
Initial investigation showed that the aircraft, a Cessna C152 series with registry number RP-C53, sustained 4o percent burn from the cabin to half of the aircraft’s empennage.
The plane’s flight instructor and a student pilot were rushed to the Sacred Heart Medical Center in Urdaneta due to 2nd degree burns.
Five months ago, another Cessna 152-type plane, also with two persons on board, crash-landed at the mountains of Pantabang, Aurora.
The incident happened while the plane was on a cross-country flight that departed at Lingayen airstrip.
In October 2016, CAAP suspended the operations of all Cessna-172 aircraft of a La Union-based aviation school after one of its planes crashed in the province of Ilocos Sur killing two people.
The incident involved C-172M trainer aircraft with registration number RP-C7838 that crashed near Vitales Resort near Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Government rescue teams retrieved the bodies of the two plane crash victims—Capt. John Kaizan Estabillo and co-pilot Paola Vianca Robles—on the coastline of Santiago, Ilocos Sur.
Initial investigation showed that the Cessna plane C-172 was conducting a touch and go procedure at the Vigan Airport and was supposed to be back on its home base in San Fernado airport in La Union when the accident happened.
Witnesses claimed they saw the plane got caught on a zipline cable causing it to crash landed on the seashore.