Laoag International Airlines Flight 585
Fokker F-27 Friendship · Crashed into sea after engine failure
From Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) to Basco Airport (BSO)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 19 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 34
- Survivors
- 15
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 15
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Fokker F-27 Friendship
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F-27
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- RP-C6888
- Operator
- Laoag International Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 19
- Route
- From Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)To Basco Airport (BSO)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Laoag International Airlines Flight 585 was a scheduled flight operated by Laoag International Airlines from Manila to Basco, Philippines via Laoag. On November 11, 2002, the Fokker F-27 Friendship crashed into Manila Bay shortly after takeoff from Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Of the 34 passengers and crew on board, 15 survived.
Flight
Flight 585 took off from Runway 31 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport shortly after 6 a.m. local time for the first leg to Laoag.
Almost at once, the plane's engines began to fail. The flight crew decided to return to the airport but when it became an unfeasible option, the pilots chose to attempt a water landing in Manila Bay instead. The Fokker F-27 broke up and sank; the Philippine Coast Guard and local fishermen rushed to the scene but 19 passengers and crew had died.
The pilot and co-pilot of Flight 585 plus Roman Catholic Bishop Jose Paala Salazar were among the survivors.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The owner of Laoag International Airlines, Paul Ng, stated sabotage caused the crash, but retracted his statement very soon afterwards. A month after the crash, Ng plus the airline's chief mechanic, were arrested by Philippine immigration authorities and charged with working without having a proper permit.
It was also found that Laoag International Airlines was not authorized to carry out scheduled services. Flight 585 was a scheduled service, and according to a source reported in the Manila Standard, the Manila–Basco service was a scheduled one.
In the days after the crash, it was also found that the Captain of the flight may have submitted counterfeit documents regarding his training. In September 1999, it was claimed that he submitted documents to the Air Transportation Office claiming he had finished a King Air B200 Recurrent training course at FlightSafety International in Long Beach, California. However, according to sources, ATO officials questioned Shannon Fackner, the records coordinator for FlightSafety International regarding the Captain's training. Fackner replied that the captain did not attend this training.
On January 10, 2003, it was announced that pilot error was the cause of the crash. The plane's two surviving pilots, Captain Bernie Crisostomo and First Officer Joseph Gardiner, failed to notice that the fuel valves were closed. Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza placed the blame for the pilot's fatal lapse on the principal officers of Laoag International Airlines.
Five months after the investigation was complete, a special committee of the Senate began proceedings to revoke Laoag International Airlines' congressional franchise.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Laoag International Airlines Flight 585” (revision 1365414806, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Laoag International Airlines Flight 585
- Revision
- 1365414806 · 2026-07-22 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q6487841
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Laoag International Airlines Flight 585" (page 34327111, revision 1365414806)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.