WORLD NEWS | Medical helicopter with 5 missing in Philippines

MANILA, March 1 (AP) — An air and sea search has been launched for a helicopter carrying five people, including a hospital patient and a nurse, that went missing in the western Philippines province Wednesday, civil aviation officials said.

The helicopter, carrying a pilot, a patient, two companions and a nurse, disappeared while flying from another town in the island province to a hospital in Point Brook, Palawan, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said.

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Aviation agency spokesman Eric Apolonio cited a report from the Rescue Coordination Center that said everyone on board was Filipino, except for the nurse, who was American.

Aviation and Coast Guard officials said Coast Guard ships and a small aircraft were deployed to search for the helicopter, which is operated by a medical air services company.

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It was the latest in a string of aviation accidents involving small planes in the country in recent weeks.

A Cessna 340 plane carrying two Filipino crew members and two consultants to Energy Australia crashed on Feb. 18 in Albay province, southeast of Mayon, one of the country’s most active volcanoes .

Their bodies were recovered from the wreckage after days of high-stakes searches. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)