MIAA: No Survivors In Lionair Plane Crash With 8 Onboard Including 2 Pilots, 1 Doctor

A plane used as an air ambulance by the Department of Health (DOH) to fight the coronavirus outbreak burst into flames as it took off from Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for Japan on Sunday night, March 29, killing all onboard.

MIAA confirms that there were no survivors of the West Wind 24 aircraft accident at NAIA.

“Unfortunately, no passenger survived the accident,” MIAA said in a statement.

The aircraft is an IAI1124A Westwind, registered RP-C5880, operated by Lionair Inc. — a Philippine-based firm that operates air ambulances and helping the government in its anti-coronavirus program, transporting medical supplies.

Senator Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, said that medical teams had been dispatched to the airport to respond to the crash involving Flight 5880.

“Eight passengers — consisting of a flight medic, a nurse, doctor, three flight crew, one patient and its companion were onboard,” he said.

“The airplane caught fire and exploded as it was taking off the NAIA runway 24. The fire was enormous,” he added.

Manila Bulletin reports indicated that the aircraft, with four flight crews (two pilots, an airplane crew and a flight medic), a doctor, a nurse, and a Canadian national who is believed to be the patient and an American companion headed to Haneda Airport in Japan on a medical evacuation flight.

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The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Philippine agency at the forefront of combating the disease, uses the same aircraft from a Philippine charter flight company called Lionair to transport supplies to the medical workers on the front line in the provinces across the archipelago, the government said.

NAIA Runway 06/24 is now closed for investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

Source: MIAA