Plane crashes into Manila Bay after takeoff, 18 killed

Plane crashes into Manila Bay after takeoff, 18 killed

Erik de Castro, Reuters, Manila

A passenger plane, trailing smoke from its left engine, plunged
into Manila Bay and broke in two shortly after taking off from
the Philippine capital on Monday, killing 18 of 34 people aboard.

Sixteen people, including two Australians, were rescued.
More than eight hours after the Fokker plane crashed into murky
waters around 11 meters (six fathoms) deep, only 14 bodies --
some still strapped in their seats -- had been recovered by
rescue teams, which included Navy frogmen and fishermen.

Coastguard chief Vice-Admiral Ruben Lista said rescuers had
shifted from a search and rescue phase to "search and retrieval
operations", suggesting all hope of finding four others still
missing had been abandoned.

The four are feared to have been trapped inside the plane,
which was immediately filled with water as it sank into the muddy
bottom of the bay, officials said.

Amateur video footage showed a trail of smoke from the left
engine on the high-winged Fokker 27 plane just before it crashed
into the bay, after taking off from Manila for the gambling
center of Laoag, 400 km (250 miles) north of the capital.

The plane crashed about one km from shore three minutes after
take-off from Manila on a one-hour flight to Laoag, the Air
Transport Office said.

A woman who had been walking along Manila Bay with her
children told local radio she saw the plane crash.

"First I saw black smoke, then suddenly the tail portion split
off and the rest of the plane sank into the bay. I saw one man
waving a white piece of cloth. Later I could not see him any
more," she said.

Four of the dead were children, including an 11-year-old boy
whose body was found still bound to his seat. The plane carried
29 passengers and five crew.

The survivors included the pilot and co-pilot. Around half of
them were in critical condition, some unconscious. At least eight
foreigners were among the passengers, including at least five
Australians, airline vice-president Alvin Yater told Reuters.

Australian survivor Steve Thompson, 25, his arms and legs
covered in bandages, told reporters the pilot warned passengers
to brace before the plane went down.

"The plane crashed, that's what happened. I really don't want
to talk about it," he said.

A police tally showed another Australian, Bryan Forester, also
survived.

"We understand that there were at least six Australians on
board the aircraft, five from Sydney and one from Brisbane," the
Australian embassy in Manila said in a statement. The embassy
only referred to one Australian survivor who had been identified
so far and said he had been treated in hospital and released.

More than two dozen boats, including Navy craft, outrigger
canoes belonging to fishermen and pleasure craft from the nearby
Manila Yacht Club, converged on the crash site but the waters
only yielded soaked luggage and metal fragments.

Divers pulled the dead body of a young boy from the sea and
tenderly lifted him into the lap of a rescuer in an inflatable
dinghy, who cradled the body as the boat moved away.

"My husband took three of the women (survivors) and we loaded
them into our car," said Nerissa Abrico who was jogging along the
bay when she witnessed the crash.

"I was cradling one of them because she was so weak...She said
all she kept thinking about were the children on the plane."
Air Transport chief Adelberto Yap said the pilot reported engine
trouble shortly after take-off.

"He radioed the tower that he was in distress and was going to
ditch," Yap told Reuters, adding there was no sign of sabotage.
Laoag is popular with tourists from China and Hong Kong. It has
one of the largest casinos in the Philippines and has direct air
links with Hong Kong.

This was the second crash of a Fokker aircraft within a week.
Twenty of the 22 passengers and crew died at Luxembourg's
international airport on Nov. 6 when a twin-engine Fokker 50
smashed into a field in thick fog while coming in to land.

The last major plane crash in the Philippines occurred in
April 2000 when an Air Philippine Boeing 737-200 crashed near the
southern city of Davao killing all 131 people on board.