Light plane crashes in southern Philippines, pilot hurt

One person was hurt when a light plane used for spraying pesticides crashed in southern Philippines on Friday morning, police said. The pilot, 47-year-old Helson Rivera, suffered minor injuries to his left elbow after the single-engine aircraft went down near houses at Visayan Village, Tagum City in Mindanao's Davao del Norte province around 6 a.m., provincial police chief Samuel Gadingan said. The yellow and white plane of Mactan Aviation with tail number RP-3024 hired by banana giant Lapanday Corporation was on its way to conduct spraying runs when its engine apparently malfunctioned, causing it to crash at Macopa community, Gadingan said. Local resident Noemi Diaz said he saw the aircraft zoomed overhead and then heard a loud sound outside her father's house. "We rushed out and ran away, fearing the plane might burst into flames," Diaz told Xinhua. Aside from the pilot, no other person was hurt, although another resident was allegedly sprayed with a liquid substance from the plane as he was just meters from where the plane went down, police said. An investigation into the accident was now being conducted, police said. Plane crashes and other accidents are common in southern Philippines where vast banana plantations use aging light aircrafts to apply pesticides over the crops.