‘A flash of light, then nothing’

August 26, 2008

A booming sound, a flash of light, and the blackness of night.

That’s how an eyewitness, 25-year-old Venerado P. Serafica Jr., described the last moments of the C-130 cargo plane that crashed into the Davao Gulf a few minutes past 9 p.m. last Monday as government rescuers, navy and coast guard personnel continued to scour the Davao gulf in search for any signs of life and debris.

Serafica narrated that he was sitting on the veranda of their house, waiting for the drizzle to stop. Suddenly, he heard a clanking sound from above and when he looked up he saw the plane streaming at nearly vertical angle towards the sea.

“There was no fire and smoke. I only saw the green and red lights and the white tail lights going towards the sea,” he said.
As the plane disappeared behind the row of two-storey houses that blocked his view of the sea, he ran inside to get his umbrella and that’s when he heard the impact.

Whoomph!

“It’s like the sound a driver makes when he hits water. Not like the impact when the plane goes belly up,” he said. “When I went to look at the ocean, It was like nothing happened.”

The stretch of seawall in Bucana lighted by mercury lamps usually draws playing children, singing and gambling fishermen, and gossiping mothers. But not that night as the rain rendered the area isolated, Serafica said.

“There was nobody there. I waited for another 30 minutes for rescuers but there was only a foreign vessel passing through,” said Serafica, who sometimes accompany neighbors fishing in the gulf to earn a little money.

Meanwhile, at around the same time, fisherman Julie Cinco said he was out alone in the gulf, between Island Garden City of Samal and Barangay Lapu-lapu, trying to catch fish when he heard a loud bang. “It was like the crack of lightning but when I looked up, I saw the plane already on fire and bellowing smoke as it fell in front of Samal towards the north,” he told the dxAB radio station.

“This morning, we saw wet papers and some were covered by cellophane,” Cinco said. “I even saw a portion of the skin belonging to a man. It couldn’t have come from a pig.”

Lapu-lapu barangay chief Lito Icoy said they heard an explosion but they dismissed it as nothing more than the sound of thunder. He appealed to residents of the coastal community to turn over any debris or papers they can find to the barangay hall.

The deepest part of the gulf, Bucana residents say, could reach as much as 300 feet while rescuers could not go deeper than 100 feet.

Association of Barangay Captains president Paolo Z. Duterte, an avid diver himself, said he already asked the help of professional divers in the search.

“Maybe they have fish finders and we can use to look for the plane,” he said.

Residents join in

Right after daybreak yesterday, fishermen of the coastal community of Bucana, one of the biggest barangays in the city, towed their outrigger boats from the shore and joined in the search. Several hours of search yielded nothing until body parts and soggy documents started filtering in the barangay hall, which was converted into a makeshift command center.

Col. Isagani P. Silva, commander of the Philippine Air Force Technical Operations Group in the Davao region and crisis management team head, said the plane landed at the Davao International Airport from Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija at around 6:37 p.m. Monday. It took off at around 8:51 p.m. bound for Iloilo to pick up members of the Presidential Security Group before losing contact with the tower 24 minutes later during a heavy rain.

“We lost contact and so we had to wait for them to arrive at their destination to get back the radio contact,” he told reporters outside the barangay hall. “Just this morning, we were still thinking they landed somewhere else.”

The Lockheed Hercules C-130 cargo plane with body number 4593, the favored transportation of poor civilians who could not afford the plane fare of commercial jets, only carried two pilots, seven crew members, and two army personnel.

Based on the flight manifest, the pilot was identified as Maj. Manuel A. Zambrano and his co-pilot was Cpt. Adrian de Dios. The crew members were Tsg. Lobregas Constantino, Ssg. John Ariola, Ssg. Gerry Denioso, Ssg. Felix Patraica; Ssg. Pedronelo Fernandez; Ssg. Patricio Romeo Gaor; Ssg. Aldrin Illustrisimo and two army soldiers who remained unidentified as of press time.

Hope fades fast

Investigators could not ascertain the cause of the crash but Silva said they are still hoping that somebody survived the incident. “It’s a possibility (that they survived) but I could not really tell for certain.”

However, as navy rescuers start bringing in body parts, wrapped in garbage bags, which were carried by the strong currents to Barangay Lapu-lapu in Agdao District, whatever hope left is starting to fade by the minute.

The floor of the barangay hall command center was bare except for the few debris, one pair of combat boots, one pouch, and a litter of documents, including the flight manual.

“We are now focusing our search and rescue operation around this general direction and cancelling other search operations,” he said.

Davao City Police Office Chief Sr. Supt. Ramon Apolinario said a damaged tire belonging to the plane was delivered to the Sasa Police Precinct. “It was too big to be brought here at the barangay hall,” he said.