The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines on Friday disclosed that it has already deployed search and rescue teams following the disappearance of Piper PA-32-300 plane in Isabela.

Reports indicated that the Piper PA-32-300 type of aircraft — with registry number RP-C1234 — went missing on 30 November 2023, after departing from Cauayan Airport at around 9:39 a.m.

The said aircraft was supposed to arrive at Palanan Airport at 10:23 a.m.

CAAP added that Cyclone Airways operates the missing aircraft, which is owned by Fliteline Airways. The pilot and a single passenger were on board.

The aircraft's final contact with Cauayan Tower was on Thursday morning at approximately 9:50 a.m and the last recorded blip from Flight Radar 24 indicates that its final known location was at 10 a.m., about 29.09 nautical miles east of Cauayan Airport.

It added that the Cauayan Airport and Tower opened early on Friday to begin search and rescue operations which extended until 6 p.m.

The aviation agency said that missing aircraft has not sent any distress signals via an Emergency Locator Transmitter to the Philippine Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre but a distress message or code word DETRESFA was received by the CAAP Operations Center from the Cauayan Tower at around 11:08 a.m. on Thursday morning.

According to Col. Glenn Piquero, head of TOG 2, the search and rescue operations will commence on the last recorded position of RP-C1234 based on the Flight Radar 24 footage provided by CAAP PARCC.

The ICS was organized by the Palanan Philippine National Police while a team composed of PNP personnel, together with the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Bureau of Fire Protection joined on the emergency activation of the ICS for the operations.

CAAP said that the PNP team, consisting of 32 personnel, is already conducting an investigation in Barangay Casala, San Mariano, Isabela, while en route to the possible location of RP-C1234.

San Mariano police station personnel, on the other hand, conducted monitoring in their area as soon as they heard of the incident on Thursday while the local government of Palanan deployed 44 people to Sitio Dipadsangan, San Mariano and Isabela.