Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 7) — The pilot of the small aircraft that crashed in Isabela was found dead on Thursday, a week after the plane went missing, while the other passenger is still being located.
The pilot’s body was found by rescuers who reached the crash site of the Piper plane at around 11 a.m., the incident management team (IMT) confirmed in a report sent to the media.
The other passenger was not found in the vicinity.
“However, she appears to have survived the crash as indicated by a makeshift shelter that she presumably put up near the wreckage,” read the report, which the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) also released.
The aircraft was carrying two people when it went missing on Nov. 30 shortly after leaving Cauayan Airport in Isabela to head to Palanan Airport in the same province.
The rescuers were dispatched to the crash site on Wednesday, after the plane was spotted earlier this week.
Authorities said teams of K-9 trackers will be brought to the wreckage site to help locate the missing passenger.
“Starting at the site of the wreckage, the K9 trackers will then follow the path that the passenger took through the scent that she left on the vegetation that she passed by,” they wrote in the update.
Officials added that rescuers will bring the remains of the pilot via helicopter to Cauayan City on Friday if the weather permits.
The CAAP said key personnel of the Cauayan Airport will continue the search and rescue operations, and that airport and tower operations will extend and open early as required.
The cause of the crash remains unclear, but Isabela’s disaster management head Constante Foronda previously said strong winds may have affected the plane’s flight.
