A chopper made its emergency landing in an empty lot located in Daan Putol, Barangay San Isidro of Taytay, Rizal. The incident happened about p(–foul word(s) removed–)ed 10 in the morning Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The said chopper was recognized as property of Philippine Air Force (PAF).
The pilots of the said chopper were identified by Lt. Col. Miguel Okol, spokesperson of PAF, as Lt. Col. Robert Bitas, (–foul word(s) removed–)isted by a student Lt. Paul Yu being his co-pilot. They made an emergency landing when they noticed that the chopper’s caution lights flickered on.
The two pilots and other soldiers riding in the helicopter were doing their routine training mission which is a part of the exercises taken by PAF students to (–foul word(s) removed–)s them if they could meet the criteria in the pilot qualification course.
For now, further investigations are being conducted by authorities to determine the causes why the incident happened.
Lt. Okol said in an interview with a radio station that as for the meantime, PAF will suspend all the air operations of the day to be able to pursue with their investigations. He also added that the chopper could still recover from its damages but maybe it will not be totally fit to flow back. As for now, the chopper was being left with authorities’ guarding while investigations are still on its processes.
Five soldiers including the two above mentioned pilots riding in the chopper obtained minor injuries from the incident. They were identified as Lt. Bitas (pilot, mentioned above), Lt. Paul Yu (PAF student and the co-pilot, also mentioned above), SSgt. Ruel Realin, Sgt. Edmund Cubillan and Airman 2nd Cl(–foul word(s) removed–) Elias Alinday.