Aboitiz plane crew, 6 others cheat death

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Aboitiz plane crew, 6 others cheat death Posted: 10:28 PM (Manila Time) | April 25, 2001 By TJ Burgonio Inquirer News Service page 1 of 1

THREE crew members and six passengers of a cargo plane escaped death after one of the plane’s two engines caught fire upon landing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday morning.

Members of the airport’s fire and rescue team rushed to the scene and sprayed foam on the burning left engine of the Aboitiz cargo plane, registered as RP-C3500, to keep the blaze from spreading.

The plane, piloted by Capt. Edgar Alcantara and First Officer Frederick Hagedorn, took off from Naga City.

Firemen doused the fire after two minutes. Shortly after the blaze was put out, the crew and the passengers were instructed to debark and were brought to the terminal. None of them was hurt.

The YS-11 aircraft was towed to the Aboitiz hangar at the old Manila Domestic Airport about 20 minutes after it landed. No commercial or chartered flight was delayed by the incident.

As of presstime, a team of investigators dispatched by the Air Transportation Office was still looking into the cause of the fire.

"It could have been caused by a fuel leak," said ATO Assistant Secretary Adelberto Yap.

The plane’s left engine burst into flames as it landed at runaway 06-24 of Naia about 10:55 a.m.

Alarmed by the fire, Alcantara immediately alerted the ATO tower for assistance.

Security guards barred some mediamen from going to the scene upon the instruction of Peter Mutuc, the newly appointed chief of the Airport Police Department.

http://www.inq7.net/met/2001/apr/26/met_7-1.htm

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), April 26, 2001


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