Manila – Mamburao – San Jose

On June 29, 1966 at 12:17 PM, Manila – Mamburao – San Jose experienced a crash involving Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3), operated by Philippine Airlines - PAL, with the event recorded near Sablayan Occidental Mindoro.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

28 people were known to be on board, 26 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 92.9%.

Crew on board: 4, crew fatalities: 4, passengers on board: 24, passenger fatalities: 22, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. Flight 785 was a scheduled domestic VFR flight from Manila to San Jose with an intermediate stop at Mamburao. The aircraft departed Manila at 1030 hours local time and arrived at Mamburao after an uneventful flight. It then took off from Mamburao at 1204 hours. At 1215 hours, the flight requested terminal weather information from San Jose Radio Station. The requested information was transmitted but was not acknowledged. A witness stated that at approximately that same time he had observed an aircraft flying at very low altitude towards the mountain on a heading of approximately 065° and that, soon after, the aircraft disappeared from sight, he heard a loud explosion coming from the mountains east of his position. Subsequent efforts of San Jose Radio Station to contact the flight on both VHF and HF frequencies proved unsuccessful. In the afternoon of 1 July 1966 the wreckage of the aircraft was found at 2,300 feet AMSL in a ravine at the northern slope of Mt Rabangan (altitude 3,500 feet) which is approximately midway between Mamburao and San Jos6 and approximately 10 nautical miles inland. Two passengers were seriously injured while 26 other occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration PI-C17, MSN 20573, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 12.8475°, 120.7850°.