ONLY ONE PILOT LOCATED SO FAR, SAYS MAR ROXAS

                                                                      Courtesy : Mar Roxas

                                                                    

Philipiness : Only one of the pilots who were with Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo in last Saturday's plane crash may have been located, Transportation Sec. Mar Roxas said Tuesday.

"The initial reports [said] that there were two bodies [inside the plane], ngayon sa video baka may isa [lang]," Roxas said in an interview aired over GMA News TV's Balitanghali.

Robredo, his aide Senior Inspector Jun Abrasado, veteran pilot and flight instructor Jessup Bahinting and his Nepali co-pilot Kshitiz Chand, were aboard a Piper Seneca plane heading for Naga from Cebu when the plane crashed off Masbate Saturday.

Only Abrasado survived the tragedy.

Earlier in the day, Roxas confirmed that the body of Robredo was found 800 meters from the shore of Masbate.

Before noon Tuesday, the official Twitter account of President Benigno Aquino III then said that divers have recovered the bodies of the two pilots.

"Divers have now recovered the bodies of Capt. Jessup Bahinting and his Nepalese co-pilot," Aquino's official Twitter account @noynoyaquino said Tuesday.

But GMA News reporter John Consulta said the report on the supposed recovery of the bodies of the two pilots was made before divers briefed Roxas and showed him the video that there may only be one body inside the plane wreckage. 

He likewise said that they will bring down again an ROV (Remotely Opreated Vehicle) to survey the area and formulate a dive plan for the retrieval of the body. 

21/08/2012  :  KIMBERLY JANE TAN / GMA NEWS 

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