MANILA, Philippines – On Monday, September 25, police and officials of San Agustin town in Romblon were rattled when at least 5 witnesses claimed that an aircraft crashed off their coast.

According to a police report, witness accounts say that at around 8:30 am a plane crashed between Barangay Agbayi and Barangay Binongaan, around 50 kilometers from Tablas Airport. 

The first report came at 9:30 am, said Johnny Fondevilla of the San Agustin Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council.

At 9:58 am, cops received a call from Barangay Captain Sulpicio Machado of Binongaan, San Agustin, reporting the same incident.

Police officers went to the approximate area where the incident had happened, and were met with 3 more witnesses recounting the same incident.

The search continued. After 8 hours, they found nothing.

The Inquirer reported earlier in the afternoon that the plane crashed into the Romblon sea. It quoted Romblon Provincial Board Member Felix Ylagan. 

In a phone interview with Rappler, San Agustin police chief Senior Inspector Clarms Mutia said they began their search at around 10 am, then halted it at 4:56 pm.

They found no debris or trails of oil from a crashing aircraft.

According to him, they also reached out to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which told them there were no records of flights that were lost.

“According to aviation authorities, they were not seeing any lost flights,” Mutia said in Filipino.

CAAP Spokesperson Eric Apolonio said in a phone interview all private and commercial planes flying around the vicinity of Romblon on Monday had reached their destination.

“There is no report from the CAAP tower regarding a plane that has crashed or has been missing today, meaning all aircraft arrived at their intended destination. Even the Philippine Air Force told us no military aircraft remains missing today,” Apolonio told Rappler.

However, the witnesses stood by what they said.

“We are stuck in a level where we don’t know if it is real or not,” Mutia said. – with a report from Chrisee dela Paz/Rappler.com