MANILA: The Philippine air force grounded its OV-10 Bronco bomber planes yesterday after one crashed at sea but other aircraft were available for possible counterinsurgency strikes, an official said.
Air force spokesman Col. Miguel Okol said seven of the turboprop planes were grounded following the crash of an OV-10 late Sunday while preparing to land in southwestern Palawan province after a routine training flight. It was not immediately known if the two pilots survived. Authorities hope they managed to eject before the plane crashed.
Search teams have found parts of the plane, including a wheel, cargo bay door and tail cone, at sea about 10 km from the Palawan airport, Okol said.
President Benigno Aquino III has struggled with limited funds to try to modernize the military, one of Asia’s weakest, by acquiring new aircraft, warships and weapons with the help of Washington, a longtime ally.
The OV-10s, developed in the 1960s, have been used in the past to assault Muslim rebels and guard Philippine claims in disputed South China Sea areas off Palawan.
Philippines grounds bomber planes after crash
Philippines grounds bomber planes after crash
Costa Rica says plot to assassinate president uncovered
- Security services unveiled that a hitman had been paid to assassinate president Rodrigo Chaves
SAN JOSE: Costa Rica’s government on Tuesday said it had uncovered a plot to assassinate President Rodrigo Chaves on the eve of national elections, in which his right-wing party is tipped for victory.
Jorge Torres, head of the Central American nation’s Directorate of Intelligence and National Security, cited a “confidential source” as informing the agency that a hitman had been paid to attack Chaves.
The purported plot comes two weeks before the country holds presidential and parliamentary elections.
Chaves, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, has backed one of his former ministers, Laura Fernandez, to succeed him.
Opposition groups have warned against what they see as possible interference in the election from the iron-fisted president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
Chaves has invited Bukele to Costa Rica on Wednesday to lay the founding stone of a new mega-prison modelled on El Salvador’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Thousands of young men are being held without charge in CECOT, as part of Bukele’s war on gang violence.
