Philippines

In the morning, three USAF Lockheed HC-130H Hercules departed Clark AFB (Angeles City) on a SAR mission following the sinking of the Japanese ship christened 'Shoka Maru' which was cruising from Japan to Cambodia and sank in the Bashi Canal. While cruising at low height off the Batanes Islands, the airplane struck the top of a wave and crashed into the sea. A passenger was rescued while 13 other occupants were killed. At the time of the accident, the crew was flying at an insufficient altitude and the sea was rough with 6 to 10 meters hollows.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in the Zambales Mountain range, killing all 11 occupants.

Crashed upon landing at Davao City-Mati Airport for unknown reason. There were no casualties but the aircraft was written off.

The crew was completing a local training flight at Sangley Point AFB and was simulating a hydraulic failure when the aircraft veered off runway on landing and crashed. All five crew members escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Flight UM507 was a scheduled domestic flight from Manila International Airport to Lapu-Lapu/Mactan International Airport. Before departure the pilot was briefed by the Air Manila dispatcher on the existence of a cold front across the route and was provided with an en-route weather forecast valid from 1200 to 2400 hours which mentioned "Isolated thunderstorm over Eastern Visayas and generally fair elsewhere". No information regarding thunderstorms on the route was given to the pilot. The flight took off from Manila at 1814 hours and was cleared to Mactan at FL 130 by the ATC, via Track 5, Amber 4 and Amber 1. The flight plan proposed an airspeed of 210 kt and an estimated time en route of 1 hour 45 minutes. Normal radio contact was maintained at all time between the flight and the air traffic services. At 1908 hours the flight reported over Romblon at FL 130, estimating Mactan at 1954 hours. This was the last message from the aircraft. Several residents of Ibajay, a coastal town in Aklan, stated that at approximately 1918 hours they had heard a sound similar to that of an aircraft flying at high altitude in a southeast direction along the coastline. They then heard several loud explosions and saw fireballs falling into the sea. They all agreed that the initial fire- ball they saw could not have been the result of a prolonged fire, but rather a small fire which rapidly developed into a large orange-yellow-red ball and then disappeared. After a few moments, smaller fireballs emerged from the large one, some dying out before reaching the sea, some reaching the sea and developing into a large fire. At the same time a large object resembling an airplane was seen to emerge from thick clouds and fall into the sea followed by a trail of smaller objects. Approximately one hour later two bodies were recovered from approximately 2 km offshore of Bo. Colong-Colong, Ibajay, Aklan.

Crashed in unknown circumstances into the sea off Palawan. There were no casualties.

The crew departed Bacolod Airport at 1833LT on a flight to Mactan. About ten minutes later, while cruising in poor weather conditions, the airplane struck the slope of Mt Kanlaon located 34 km southeast of Bacolod Airport. The wreckage was found few hours later and all 21 occupants were killed. The crew was flying under VFR mode in IMC conditions when the accident occured.

After landing at Iligan Airport, the airplane encountered difficulties to stop within the remaining distance. It overran and came to rest in a river. There were no casualties but the aircraft was written off.

The aircraft was under a two week lease from the owner, the Permina Oil Company of Indonesia, to the Royal Netherlands Aircraft Factories - Fokker, for the purpose of a series of demonstration flights in the Philippines. It arrived at Manila on 24 April 1967 and conducted demonstration flights at various airports on 26 and 27 April 1967. On that day the aircraft took off from Mactan at 0816 hours and after having flown to ten different aerodromes it arrived at Davao at 1557 hours where the main fuel tanks and water/ methanol tanks were filled to capacity. At 1635 hours the aircraft took off from Davao and landed at Malaybalay Airport on runway 06 at 1705 hours. It continued its landing roll up to the end of the runway, made a 180° turn and then took off from runway 24. According to ground witnesses the take-off was initiated with both engines at maximum power and the aircraft became airborne at about two-thirds of the runway length. At that time the right hand propeller was starting to slow down and stopped when the aircraft reached a height of about 1 metre above the ground. The aircraft appeared to have difficulty in gaining height and followed a creek between two hills in a right wing low attitude. It struck a tree and some bamboos and crashed on a hill 45 m higher than the runway elevation. The site of the accident was located 1 380 m from the end of runway 04 and 136.5 m to the right of its extended centre line. The accident occurred at 1710 hours. All three crew members and 16 passengers were killed.

Flight 345 was a scheduled domestic flight from Manila to Mactan. It departed Manila at 1720 hours on an IFR clearance direct to Mactan, via Amber 1 at flight level 130. At 1908 hours the flight reported to Mactan Control Approach that it was descending through FL 70. It was cleared to FL 50, given an altimeter setting of 29.81 in Hg and requested to report at FL 60. At 1909 hours the flight requested a visual descent from FL 50 to 30 and at 1913 hours it reported commencing a VOR approach to runway 04. At 1917 hours the flight reported on final and Mactan Approach cleared the flight to land, giving the wind as 330'15 kt. The flight acknowledged the clearance and this was the last communication from the aircraft. Whilst on a long final approach commenced from a height of 1 500 feet approximately 4 miles from the runway threshold, the aircraft suddenly assumed a nose-high attitude and additional power was applied. A crew member then came out of the cockpit and spoke in the direction of a number of supernumerary crew travelling in the passenger compartment instructing them to move forward. Moments later a flight attendant came from the cockpit and instructed everybody to move forward. Before all the passengers could comply, the air- craft started banking alternately to the right and left, descending in a tail low attitude and crashed at approximately 1918 hours 0.9 miles before the threshold of runway 04. At 1919 hours the aerodrome controller observed a fire near-the approach end of runway 04 and alerted the emergency services. All four crew members and eight passengers were killed, seven others survived.