RP plane crash destroys whole families, futures
RP plane crash destroys whole families, futures
By Jim Gomez
DAVAO, Philippines (AP): Luisa Hall, a college professor, took Air Philippines flight 541 to southern Davao city with her Australian husband, Martin, and two daughters to attend her mother's birthday, a brother's wedding and her youngest child's baptism. They never made it.
A girlfriend prepared a welcome banner and a party for Jerard Pingoy, who was on the same plane. Pingoy, a member of a Philippine martial arts team, was returning home from a competition in France.
Another passenger waited for a girlfriend whom he had just convinced to quit her job to marry him.
The Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 jet slammed into a hill on Samal island near Davao Wednesday in the country's worst air disaster, wiping out entire families and turning planned Easter vacations into nightmares.
"The whole family was on that plane," said Patrick Mallari, a brother of Luisa Hall.
Mallari stood in a drizzle beside a grandstand in a military camp in Davao where soldiers lined up 23 cadaver bags containing the mangled remains of crash victims for relatives and forensic experts to identify.
His sister had planned to join their mother's birthday celebration on Thursday, hold the baptism of her 3-month-old daughter on Easter Sunday and attend his wedding April 30, Mallari said.
"All have been canceled," he said.
After waiting for a day, Mallari left the army camp with his mother late Wednesday after experts failed to identify his sister's family among the dead.
Many of the 150 grieving relatives at the grandstand had been excitedly waiting for the arrival of their loved ones at Davao's airport just hours earlier and were shocked at the turn of events.
One woman was called by social workers and handed a gold wedding ring they recovered from a charred body believed to be her husband. She examined the ring closely, and seeing her name engraved on it, shook her head and wept.
Ivy Jill, a 27-year-old nurse, went to the airport to fetch her longtime boyfriend, Anil Daswani, an Indian working in Manila. She said she saw the plane circling the airport and then disappear.
"He asked me what I wanted for a present," Jill said. "I told him just come home safely."
Airport officials said skies were foggy at the time of the accident. The plane had been unable to land on its first approach to Davao because another plane was on the runway, and began to circle the airport, air traffic controllers said.
It crashed as it prepared to make another approach from the opposite direction, they said.
Elnora Marciano said her sister, Evelyn de la Fuente, took the plane with her husband and three of her four children for a family reunion in their hometown in southern Sultan Kudarat province.
"She left a son to watch the house," Marciano said.
The plane crash on Samal, a resort island, dampened expectations among residents of a festive and busy tourist season.
On Wednesday, a feast was prepared for islanders to celebrate President Joseph Estrada's 63rd birthday.
Residents instead climbed the hill to the site of the smoldering wreckage, leaving the food prepared for the feast on tables in a public hall, Samal Mayor Rogelio Antalan said.
Officials then canceled the festivities and helped retrieve bodies from the crash site.