PHILIPPINES: RESCUERS SEARCH FOR BODIES OF THOSE WHO DIED WHEN CEBU PACIFIC AIR FLIGHT 387 CRASHED INTO MOUNT SUMAAYA

Record ID: 639938

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: RESCUERS SEARCH FOR BODIES OF THOSE WHO DIED WHEN CEBU PACIFIC AIR FLIGHT 387 CRASHED INTO MOUNT SUMAAYA
  • Date: 6th February 1998
  • Summary: CAGAYAN DE ORO, PHILIPPINES (FEBRUARY 4, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV/SV/CU PHILIPPINE PARATROOPERS PREPARING TO BOARD HELICOPTER (4 SHOTS) 0.18 2. AERIALS OF RESCUE HELICOPTER FLYING OVER FORESTS (2 SHOTS) 0.35 3. CU PILOT 0.39 4. AERIAL OF MOUNT SUMAGAYA AND CRASH SITE (2 SHOTS). 0.53 CAGAYAN DE ORO, PHILIPPINES (FEBRUARY 5, 19
  • Embargoed: 21st February 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAGAYAN DE ORO, PHILIPPINES
  • City:
  • Country: Phillippines
  • Reuters ID: LVA6AE99XWR3TX0XJR568HRYXZIY
  • Story Text: Rescuers in the Philippines have found only mangled bodies at the site of the country's worst air crash.

    Relatives have agreed to cremate those that could not be identified so they could share the ashes.

    Rescue teams continued their search on Thursday (February 5) for the bodies of those who died when Cebu Pacific Air flight 387 crashed into Mount Sumagaya, in southern Mindanao, last Monday (February 2).

    Although officials have virtually abandoned all hope of finding survivors, air force helicopters dropped bags of food and medicines at the foot of the densely forested mountain and nearby areas.

    So far, the search has found 11 mutilated bodies, including a woman's torso, and six plastic bags of dismembered body parts as well as personal belongings, including blood-stained clothes, photographs and name cards.

    The rescue teams are continuing to pick up what they can retrieve and it has been decided that those parts which cannot be identified will be cremated and the ashes distributed among the relatives.

    The government and the relatives have also agreed on procedures for settling any multiple claims over a body.

    Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mariano Celemente said it was difficult for the rescue teams to reach the crash site but that they would get there by the end of Thursday.

    The ill-fated DC-9 was heading from Manila to nearby Cagayan de Oro city on Monday when it crashed into the 7,375-foot (2,248-metre) Mount Sumagaya after radioing ground control that it was preparing to descend.

    The plane was carrying 99 passengers and five crew.At least eight foreigners -- two Americans, two Canadians, one Japanese, one Australian, one Austrian and a Swiss national -- were among the passengers.

    A crucial job of the searchers will be to locate the plane's "black box" containing a flight data recorder, which should give investigators an idea of what happened before the plane crashed.

    Experts from the United States flew in on Wednesday night to help with the investigation.

    In the country's last major air accident, 50 people died in 1987 when a Philippine Airlines plane crashed in the northern Philippines.
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