DAVAO CITY –— The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) on Friday said it will investigate the incident involving a helicopter that was forced to make an emergency landing in a banana plantation in Babahagon, Lantapan, Bukidnon Thursday morning.
An R44 helicopter operated by Philippine Adventist Medical Aviation Services (PAMAS) made an emergency landing in Bukidnon, no one was hurt.
The CAAP information stated that the incident was verified through the Laguindingan Tower, but CAAP noted that PAMAS “did not file a flight plan for this operation.”
The incident prompted Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board Chief Reineer Baculinao to conduct a probe.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, PAMAS posted “Jared Hoewing, a PAMAS helicopter pilot, was flying the R44 helicopter this morning around 10a.m near the base located in Valencia City, Bukidnon. He was at around 3,000 feet altitude when the helicopter began losing power and he had to do an emergency landing in a banana field about 3 miles from the airbase. Thankfully, neither the pilot nor passengers were seriously injured. One passenger was taken to the hospital for further evaluation, but his condition was not critical. There were no other injuries. We will give further updates on the situation as they become available.
Aviation authorities noted that the aircraft is operated by the same group behind the air ambulance that went missing last March. The missing chaopper was carrying four people en route to Palawan.
