1st Accident of OMNI Aviation in 20 Years

2 hurt as plane crashlands in Nueva Ecija rice field
By Anselmo RoqueCentral Luzon Desk First Posted 04:50pm (Mla time) 12/20/2007

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines -- Two persons, one of them an Indian pilot, were hurt when their plane crashlanded in a rice field in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija, on Thursday.

Police said the Indian pilot, Sandeen Kimmar, 30, and his co-pilot, Jeffrey Mabbang, 26, of Tarlac City, were taken to a hospital in nearby La Paz, Tarlac, and later transferred to the Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital in Tarlac City.

Chief Inspector Restituto Reyes, Zaragoza police chief, said Kimmar’s two-seater Omni plane apparently experienced mechanical problems at about 10 a.m., forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in Barangay (village) Valeriana, seven kilometers from Zaragoza town proper.Zaragoza is some 30 kilometers west of this city.

Reyes said the plane left Clark air field in Pampanga earlier in the day for a routine training flight.

He said residents of Barangay Valeriana noticed the plane was circling several meters above the ground before it landed in the rice field.