Laoag International Airlines Flight 585 was a scheduled flight operated by

Laoag International Airlines Laoag International Airlines was an airline based in the Philippines. It shut down when one of its aircraft, Flight 585 crashed in Manila Bay in 2002. Code data Laoag International Airlines Code Data. *IATA Code: L7 *ICAO Code: LPN *Callsign: L ...

from

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

to Basco, Philippines via

Laoag Laoag, officially the City of Laoag ( ilo, Siudad ti Laoag; fil, Lungsod ng Laoag), is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 111,651 people. ...

. On November 11, 2002, the

Fokker F-27 Friendship The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Euro ...

crashed into

Manila Bay Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phi ...

shortly after takeoff from

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...

. Of the 34 passengers and crew on board, 15 survived.

Flight

Flight 585 took off from Runway 31 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport shortly after 6 a.m. local time for the first leg to Laoag. Almost at once the plane's engines began to fail. The flight crew decided to return to the airport but when it became an unfeasible option, the pilots chose to attempt a

water landing In aviation, a water landing is, in the broadest sense, an aircraft landing on a body of water. Seaplanes, such as floatplanes and flying boats, land on water as a normal operation. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing on the water s ...

in Manila Bay instead. The Fokker F-27 broke up and sank; the

Philippine Coast Guard The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ( fil, Tanod Baybayin ng Pilipinas) is recognized as the third armed uniformed service of the country attached to the Philippines' Department of Transportation, tasked primarily with enforcing laws within P ...

and local fishermen rushed to the scene but 19 passengers and crew had died. The pilot and co-pilot of Flight 585 plus

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Bishop Jose Paala Salazar were among the survivors.

Aftermath

The aircraft sank in about of water. A floating crane was initially used to attempt to raise the aircraft but was initially unsuccessful. Two days after the crash, the fuselage of the aircraft was finally raised from the depths of Manila Bay.

Investigation

The owner of Laoag International Airlines, Paul Ng, stated sabotage caused the crash, but retracted his statement very soon afterwards. A month after the crash, Ng plus the airline's chief mechanic, were arrested by Philippine immigration authorities and charged with working without having a proper permit. It was also found that Laoag International Airlines was not authorized to carry out scheduled services. Flight 585 was a scheduled service, and according to a source reported in the ''Manila Standard'', the Manila-Basco service was a scheduled one. In the days after the crash, it was also found that the Captain of the flight may have submitted counterfeit documents regarding his training. In September 1999, it was claimed that he submitted documents to the Air Transportation Office claiming he had finished a King Air B200 Recurrent training course at FlightSafety International in Long Beach, California. However, according to sources, ATO officials questioned Shannon Fackner, the records coordinator for FlightSafety International regarding the Captain's training. Fackner replied that the captain did not attend this training. On January 10, 2003, it was announced that pilot error was the cause of the crash. The plane's two surviving pilots, Captain Bernie Crisostomo and First Officer Joseph Gardiner, failed to notice that the fuel valves were closed. Transportation and Communications Secretary, Leandro Mendoza, placed the blame for the pilot's fatal lapse on the principal officers of Laoag International Airlines. Five months after the investigation was complete, a special committee of the Senate began proceedings to revoke Laoag International Airlines' congressional franchise.

References

External links

Aviation Safety Network accident description

Associated Press news report on the crash
{{coord missing, Philippines Aviation accidents and incidents in the Philippines Airliner accidents and incidents involving ditching Airliner accidents and incidents caused by engine failure Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Aviation accidents and incidents in 2002 Accidents and incidents involving the Fokker F27 History of Metro Manila 2002 disasters in the Philippines November 2002 events in Asia