Philippine troops find trainer plane’s wreckage and retrieve the bodies of the pilot and student

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops found the wreckage of a small plane and retrieved the bodies of its Filipino trainer pilot and his Indian student Thursday after a three-day search that was hampered by bad weather, officials said.

The Cessna 152 crashed in a hinterland village near Luna town in the mountainous northern province of Apayao, which lies east of Ilocos Norte province, where the plane took off on Tuesday.

Army troops, police and volunteers launched a search after the two-seater plane failed to land three hours later as expected in Cagayan province near Apayao. Two aerial searches were called off due to strong wind, heavy rains and poor visibility, officials said.

Civil aviation officials said pictures of the wreckage they saw showed the plane’s registry number still visible on the side of its twisted tail.

The plane had received clearance to take off from Laoag city in Ilocos Norte province after weather there had cleared. A powerful typhoon lashed Ilocos Norte, Cagayan and other northern provinces last week.

Typhoon Doksuri left at least 27 people dead mostly in flooding and landslides, displaced nearly 300,000 others and damaged more than 50,000 houses.