While searching for Jesse Robredo, a brush with death

I thought I was the lucky one.   Among dozens of journalists who had gathered in Masbate in mid-August to document the search for the beloved Jesse Robredo, I was the lone civilian on board a Navy Bolkow helicopter that had just joined the operation. And I was there because a colleague had gotten the jitters and backed out.   Navy officers were generous enough to allot a seat for me on this aerial reconnaissance mission so I could photograph anything spotted in the Masbate sea that could provide a clue to the missing plane and its passengers. It was a Tuesday, the third day after the crash.   It was a calm, clear morning over a vast expanse of emptiness, the fading hopes of a nation hanging on sorties like this one.   After 40 minutes of futile flying, the Navy pilots decided to head for mainland Sorsogon. If the missing Robredo and his two pilots were not bobbing in life vests on the sea’s surface, perhaps they were lying exhausted on an uninhabited beach waiting for rescue, waiting to be spotted by people like us.     As we neared land, our chopper hit what felt like a wall of wind. The gust toyed with our flying machine, which bounced and shook and spun downwards until it splashed into the sea.   Water rushed towards my feet. Instinctively, I covered my two cameras with my laptop bag so they wouldn't get wet. Then I heard the co-pilot sitting in front of me shouting SOS over a two-way radio. The chopper was being dragged by the waves towards the shore until it hit some rocks. The water quickly became waist-deep. The pilots shouted, "Talon, baba, dali (Jump out quickly)!"  Responding to the order, I leaped out of the helicopter. My laptop, cameras, and cell phone all got wet. The chopper had made an emergency landing about 20 steps away from the shoreline of Donsol, Sorsogon, a place made famous by tourist-friendly whale sharks, now visited unexpectedly by a falling mechanical bird.  Fishermen and residents immediately came to our assistance.   From Donsol, the Coast Guard transported us to their detachment in Pilar town where they made sure we were all in one piece. We were shaken but otherwise fine, and grateful to be alive.   We were all hoping that that was all that happened to Jesse Robredo and his two companions, an emergency landing in a remote place where they had not yet been rescued. We were wishing that they would be just like us, shaken but alive.   The next morning, their plane was found. Danny Pata is a photographer who contributes to GMA News Online. -- Edited by Howie Severino, curated by Joe Galvez, GMA News