pn: Mt. Balatucan: The enchanted crash site (Features)
Phil. News Agency
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, (PNA) - God Forbids! In Northern
Mindanao, an enchanted mountain is known to claim lives to please
mountain deities and goddesses. Most victims are aircraft.
Last year, on February 1, 1997, a 12-seater Cessna Citation Jet, on
its way to refuel at the Lumbia International Airport in Cagayan de Oro
City crashed at Mt. Balatucan, killing its pilot and co-pilot.
It took authorities and volunteers more than a week to trek to the
mountain's crash site but still failed to retrieve the pilot bodies and
the aircraft which crashed on an unaccessible mountain slopes.
The crash site: Mt. Balatucan is known to old tribal folks to have
been inhabited by gods and goddesses oftentimes hostile to mortals.
Most seasoned pilots narrated scary experience while passing through
Mt. Balatucan that even battle-tested pilots of helicopter gun ships
refused to pass Mt. Balatucan's peak on certain hours of the day.
The ill-fated Cessna Citation Jet came from Butuan City where it
dropped former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa, who was then on
inspection tour, before proceeding to Cagayan de Oro City. The jet's
pilot radioed the airport's tower in Cagayan de Oro City that it was
about three miles away from the approach and was expected to land 10
minutes before it perished in the airport's radar-tracker.
Today, one year later, a passenger aircraft carrying 99 passengers
and five crew members was reported missing 15 minutes before it was
about to land at the Lumbia International Airport here.
Capt. Paulo Justo, pilot of Cebu Pacific aircraft, radioed the Lumbia
tower here that it was flying at an altitude of 11,500 feet, 37 miles
away from the airport's approach and was expected to land 15 minutes
later. Since then, nothing is heard of the aircraft.
The missing passenger aircraft airborne at the Manila Domestic
Airport past 9:00 o'‡lock this morning and expected to arrive in Cagayan
de Oro City at 11:03 in the morning.
When the search for the Cebu Pacific aircraft proved futile, all eyes
are now, once again, focused at Mt. Balatucan, a 15,000 feet or above
sea level mountain that stretch from the east coast of Misamis Oriental
towards southeast of Surigao del Norte's Mt. Diwata mountain.
Mt. Balatucan is a dormant volcano with a crater known as "Balatucan
River." It is part of Claveria, a landlocked town of Misamis Oriental.
The mountain's peak is visible in Gingoog City, a component city of
Misamis Oriental's eastern coast.
Mt. Balatucan had claimed dozen of lives in past aircraft crashes and
rescuers always find it hard trekking the mountain's slippery and tricky
slopes.
It's lush and verdant green forest conceal unexpected dangers:
leeches and pythons that suddenly leap from thick foliage toward
unsuspecting prey.
Seasoned pilots who normally passes through Mt. Balatucan en route to
Butuan City, Surigao and vis-a-vis Cagayan de Oro City refused to pass
through the mountain's peak past 3:00 o‡lock in the afternoon.
Aircraft pilots said thick clouds enveloped Mt. Balatucan later in
the afternoon as visibility in the area falls to "zero."
But, mountain folks at the foot of Mt. Balatucan swear that thick
clouds cover the mountain anytime of the day accompanied by gusty winds.
"But then, it would be impossible for aircraft to pass through the
mountain's peak," tribal residents said.
It was, however, unusual for Cebu Pacific aircraft to pass through
Mt. Balatucan since most commercial aircraft coming from Manila en route
to Cagayan de Oro City had its approach passing above the open Mindanao
seas toward the airport.
But, old folks at the foot of Mt. Balatucan had another tell-tale
claiming that the enchanted mountain had its way of deceiving wayward
aircraft to its fold.
"There are times that the deities in Mt. Balatucan display their
ferocities through sudden changes of weather even on normal days," a
tribal folk said.
When this occur, an aircraft usually crashed in the mountain slopes
just as ill-fated commercial, private and military aircraft found their
resting place in Mt. Balatucan's chilly mountain bosom, a tribal leader
once narrated.
But, in the case of the Cebu Pacific aircraft, everyone in Cagayan de
Oro City still hopes that the aircraft had landed safely elsewhere
otherwise the "jinx" associated with Mt. Balatucan's may once again,
prove horrifying. (PNA) RGC/CD/rsm
PNA 02022100
------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Copyright 1998 - Philippines News Agency - All rights reserved**
Tel. No. (632) 920-6551 Fax No. 632) 920-3987 E-mail p...@psdn.org.ph
------------------------------------------------------------------------