Air Force bomber crashlands in Clark Field

An Air Force OV-10 Bronco aircraft made an emergency crashlanding at an undisclosed area at Clark Field, Pampanga in Central Luzon, GMANews.TV learned. Major Augusto dela Peña, PAF spokesman, identified the pilots as 2nd Lieutenant Maureen Fajardo and Capt. Villamor Feria. Both of them suffered minor injuries. They were taken to the Philippine Air Force (PAF) hospital inside Clark Field, a former air base of the US military. The crashlanding happened at about 10 a.m. as the two pilots were returning from RP-US joint military exercises. Dela Peña said the OV-10 Bronco "swerved to the right of the runway upon landing due [to the] collapse of right main landing gear." "The aircraft suffered major damage, particularly at the right wing, landing gear, the nose gear and the right engine ... We needed a crane to lift the aircraft," he said. He added that, "the aircrews have just completed maneuvers for the RP-US Talon Vision Exercise when the incident occurred during landing," he added. The annual training seeks to improve the interoperability of the two countries. It began its two-week run last October 16. Prior to the crash, the ill-fated aircraft was used for "joint attack tactics" training with a Harrier fighter-bomber of the US Marine Corps. OV-10 Broncos are designed for bombing operations and is used for counter-insurgency efforts. The US military no longer uses this aircraft. As this developed, the Air Force leadership ordered its entire OV-10 fleet grounded while an investigation on Tuesday's incident is underway. The PAF currently has 14 units of the aircraft. "That is our standard operating procedure until the cause of the incident is determined," he said. Last January, another PAF OV-10 plane exploded in mid-air over Bulacan province, killing one of its pilots.-GMANews.TV