Philippine Airlines Flight 206

Infobox Aircraft accident
name = Philippine Airlines Flight 206


caption =
date = June 27, 1987
type =
site = Mount Ugu, Benguet, Philippines
coords = coord|16|19|9|N|120|48|6|E
aircraft_type = Hawker Siddeley HS 748
aircraft_name = PR206
operator = Philippine Airlines
tail_number = RP-C1015
origin = Manila Domestic Airport, Metro Manila, Philippines
destination = Loakan Airport, Baguio City
passengers = 46
crew = 4
fatalities = 50
survivors = none

Philippine Airlines Flight 206 (PR206) was the route designator of a domestic flight from the Manila Domestic Airport, Metro Manila, Philippines to Loakan Airport, Baguio City. On June 27, 1987, the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 crashed onto a mountain en route to Baguio City, killing all 50 persons on board.

Accident

On the morning of June 27, 1987, Flight 206 departed the Manila Domestic Airport for Loakan Airport in Baguio City, around 250 kilometers north of Manila. It was scheduled to arrive at 11:10:00 Philippine Standard Time in Baguio, a city with an altitude of about 1500 meters.cite news |author=Associated Press |title= 50 Killed in Philippine Air Crash |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DF1F3FF934A15755C0A961948260 |publisher=New York Times |date=1987-06-27 |accessdate=2008-04-03 ] As the plane approached Baguio City, its pilot reported poor visibility. A monsoon was also reported in the area. [ cite web |title=Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 06261987 |url=http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=06261987&reg=RP-C1015&airline=Philippine+Airlines |publisher=Air Disaster.com |accessdate=2008-04-03 ] Flight 206 disappeared from the radar screens around ten minutes before it was scheduled to land.

The wreckage of the plane was discovered five hours after it had gone missing. Flight 206 had crashed onto the fog-shrouded slopes of Mount Ugu, a 2,086 meter-high mountain located between Itogon, Benguet and Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya. [cite web |title=Top Ten Mountains: Above the Clouds |url=http://www.cebusmile.com/2007/10/01/top-ten-mountains/ |publisher=Cebu Pacific Air |work=Smile Magazine Online: The Inflight Magazine of Cebu Pacific Air |date=2007-10-01 |accessdate=2008-04-03 ] The crash site was located around 180 meters below the summit of Mount Ugu, and 15 kilometers south of Loakan Airport.

Fatalities

There were no survivors among the 46 passengers and 4 crew members on the plane. Most of the fatalities were Filipinos, including Catholic Bishop Bienvenido Tudtud, Prelate of Marawi City. [ cite web |author=Edwin C. Mercurio |title=Bishop Bienvenido Tudtud: “The Lamplighter” |url=http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:noV0SrAxlqcJ:www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/I-R/pdf/12-Mercurio.pdf+%22Flight+206%22+Philippine&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=ph&client=firefox-a | format=PDF |date=Fall, 1987 |accessdate=2008-04-03 ] At least one American citizen died in the crash. [ cite news |title= Bodies of Victims Recovered From Plane Crash in Philippines |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DB1330F93BA15755C0A961948260 |author=Agence France-Presse |date=1987-06-28 |accessdate=2008-04-03 ]

The crash of Flight 206 was, at that time, the second worst commercial aviation accident in Philippine history. The death toll has since been superseded by the crashes involving Cebu Pacific Air Flight 387 in 1998, and Air Philippines Flight 541 in 2001.

References