20 February 2023 , 10:24
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Four people are feared dead after a plane went missing over the weekend.
The Cessna 340 plane, which was bound for the Philippines' capital Manila, vanished after taking off from Albay province southeast of the capital on Saturday morning with two Filipino pilots and two Australian passengers.
The fate of those onboard is still unknown and rescuers have been struggling to reach the slopes of the active volcano in the central Philippines where the small plane is believed to have crashed.
A ground search was hampered by rainy weather over the weekend, but if the weather clears then dozens of search and rescue personnel may scale the 8,077-foot Mayon volcano.
However wreckage has been spotted near a volcano crater and authorities are now trying ascertain if it is the missing plane.
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Volcano Mount Mayon spews a thick column of ash (AFP/Getty Images)Mayor Carlos Baldo of Albay's Camalig town and other officials told reporters that, during an aerial search, authorities spotted the suspected wreckage, including the tail, scattered about 1,150 feet from the crater on the south-western slope of Mayon Volcano but there was no sign of people.
Manila-based Energy Development Corporation said the missing plane belonged to the company and it was seeking to confirm if the wreckage spotted on Sunday in “very steep terrain and high altitude of about 6,000 feet” was theirs.
“There might be a sudden ash explosion and we could be added to the casualties,” Albay disaster officer Cedric Daep told local radio DZBB.
He also said they are not discounting the possibility that there could be survivors.
Because of this, the search teams would have to be closely monitored by volcano experts and local officials.
"It's a very risky operation," Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Teresito Bacolcol said.
Lava spews from the Mayon volcano as it continues to erupt (AFP/Getty Images)He continued: "It's a race against time and it's a matter of life and death but there's also the danger of rockfalls and volcanic lahar."
Rescue contingents could enter the permanent danger zone 3.7 miles around the Mayon because "it's an extraordinary situation", but the search and rescue will be very high risk.
Mayon is a popular tourist destination because it is very beautiful, but its danger is still prevalent - last erupting in 2018 and displacing tens of thousands of villagers.
It is currently under the second of five volcano alert levels, meaning volcanic earthquakes, steam and gas emissions, ground deformation and intermittent ash and steam blasts have been sporadically detected.
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Alert five means a major and deadly volcanic eruption is underway.
The aviation accident comes less than a month after another Cessna plane, with six people on board, went missing on January 24 in the northern province of Isabela. A search for that plane’s wreckage is still ongoing.