2 flight school planes collide; 3 dead

Malolos, Bulacan, Philippines: Two light airplanes used in pilot training crashed into a rice field, killing three people in Barangay Ligas here yesterday noon.
Initial reports said the two Cessna planes plunged into the rice field after their wings grazed each other.
Three people, including a female Indian student pilot, were instantly killed in the incident.
Police identified the fatalities as Patrick Phillip Teruel, a flight instructor of Phoenix School of Aviation based in Plaridel town, and student pilots Reena Salve, 25, and Varsha Gopinath, an Indian national.
Teruel and Gopinath were on board a Cessna-150 with body number RP-C-2679, while Salve was on another Cessna with body number RP-C-8696.
The planes took off from an airstrip in Barangay Agnaya in Plaridel, less than 30 kilometers from the crash site.
Bulacan police provincial director Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina said the skies were partly cloudy over Malolos when the crash occurred.
The ATO’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) chairman Jose Saplan said based on their initial information, the two airplanes collided in midair while cruising at 500 feet.
Saplan said one of the planes took off runway 35 from Plaridel airstrip while the other was supposed to land in the same runway after being cleared for landing.
Witnesses, however, claimed seeing the two airplanes flying alongside each other when their wings grazed before they plunged.
Residents of Bocaue town also saw the two planes flying too close to each other when it maneuvered towards the airspace over Malolos.
The crash was the fifth within four years in the province.
Most of the crashes involved planes owned by aviation schools in Plaridel town, while the others involved Air Force planes and helicopters.
09/07/07 Dino Balabo/Michael Punongbayan, Cecille Suerte Felipe, AP, AFP/Philippine Star, Philippines