(Update) Bomber plane malfunctions in Davao

An OV-10 bomber plane belonging to the Philippine Air Force (PAF) on Monday morning made an emergency landing at the old Davao Airport in Davao City after it failed to retract its landing gear. No one was hurt in the incident, but PAF grounded all its 10 OV-10s as part of its standard operating procedure (SOP) pending investigation. “[PAF chief Lt. Gen. Oscar Rabena] has ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the incident. The aircraft will be temporarily grounded and will be subjected to thorough inspection," said PAF spokesman Maj. Gerardo Zamudio. The plane, with tail number 647, was one of the two OV-10s of the 11th Tactical Operations Group that went on a regular maintenance operations check flight to test engine performance, according to Zamudio. He said the first aircraft landed without any problem. But at around 10:30 a.m., the left landing gear of the second aircraft collapsed during a landing process, causing the plane to slide at the runway. The plane was not carrying any bomb or rockets at the time of the incident, Zamudio said. OV-10s are usually used for dropping bombs and firing rockets at enemy targets. “That will be the subject of the investigation, how the landing [gear] collapsed because the right landing gear was fine. The left landing gear collapsed so that will be looked into during the investigation," Zamudio said. With the OV-10s sidelined, Zamudio said the military would have to rely on its MG-520 helicopters and SF-260 turbo craft in the delivery of rockets and bombs to enemy positions. He said the OV-10s may be used again after the investigation. “This is just an SOP that if there is an incident that occurred like this, no matter how small it is, we have to ground the aircraft." - with Sophia Dedace/KBK, GMANews.TV