50 Killed as Plane Crashes in Philippines

A Philippine Airlines plane crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain and burst into flames today about nine miles from its destination in northern Luzon, killing all 50 people aboard.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mary Carlin said at least one American and possibly as many as 10 were among the 46 passengers on the twin-engine HS-748 turboprop. Airline officials said most of the others were Filipinos.

Government television said nine passengers were Americans of Filipino descent.

Names of those known or believed to be Americans were withheld until the families were notified and citizenship was verified.

It was the second-worst commercial aviation accident in the Philippines. Another Philippine Airlines HS-748 crashed in northern Luzon in 1967, killing 56 people.

Leslie Espino, senior vice president of the airline, said Flight PR206 from Manila was approaching the mountain resort of Baguio City, 130 miles north of the capital, when the pilot radioed that visibility was poor.

The plane disappeared from radar screens at about 11 a.m., 10 minutes before it was scheduled to land.

Search planes located the wreckage five hours later, 200 yards below the summit of 7,000-foot Mt. Ugu, about nine miles south of the airport.

Two U.S. Air Force helicopters reached the site at 6 p.m. and found no survivors.

Lumberjacks in the area reportedly were first on the scene and pulled a survivor from the wreckage, but he died soon afterward. They said the fuselage was intact and the flames apparently trapped victims inside.

Espino said the cause of the crash had not been determined, but “one could not rule out weather as a contributory cause.”