PAF mourns death of 4 crewmen in Bukidnon helicopter crash
COTABATO CITY ---- The Mindanao-based Tactical Operations Group 10 and 12 of the Philippine Air Force are mourning the demise of four helicopter crewmen killed in a crash in Bukidnon Saturday.
The fatalities, pilot Lt.Col. Arnie Arroyo, co-pilot 2Lt. Mark Anthony Caabay and crew members Staff Sgt. Mervin Bersabi and Airman 1st Class Stephen Agarado, were together in the UH-1H helicopter that crashed in Barangay Bulonay in Impasugong, Bukidnon at about 2:00 p.m. Saturday.
Their three passengers, two of them soldiers under the Army's 403rd Brigade and the other a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, also perished in the accident.
Arroyo was from Zamboanga City, son of a midwife in a military hospital while his father, who died in 2019, was a retired member of the Philippine Marine Corps.
Caabay, of Class 2018 of the Philippine Military Academy, hailed from Roxas town in Palawan.
Members of PAF’s TOG-12 based in the Cotabato Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao said Sunday they were saddened by the demise of their colleagues.
Arroyo is a jolly and friendly officer, according to TOG-12 members who knew him personally.
Even personnel of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Camp Gonzalo Siongco, which is near the TOG-12 headquarters, are grieving the death of the passengers and crew of the ill-fated helicopter.
“We share with the grief of our counterparts in the Philippine Air Force. We pray for the repose of the victims of that tragedy. We wish their families to have the strength needed to overcome their grief,” 6th ID’s commander, Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, told reporters via text message early Sunday.
He said the 6th ID is proud of the role of PAF’s TOG-12 in its recent accomplishments in addressing security problems in central Mindanao towns due to the presence of local terror groups operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the equally troublesome New People’s Army.
The helicopter piloted by Arroyo was in a resupply mission for the Army’s 403rd Brigade when its engine malfunctioned while hovering above Barangay Bulonay in Impasugong, causing the deadly crash.