A trainer aircraft carrying two people crashed in the Philippines on the 17th of May, one of whom was a Saudi national. The Saudi national has been identified as Abdullah Al-Sharif who was a student pilot.

The duo was flying a Beechcraft Baron 55 aircraft that took off from the San Jose Airport. It disappeared from the radar just several minutes after takeoff.

The Saudi Gazette has quoted the mother of the pilot saying that in one of her last phone calls with her son he was happy that he would graduate within two months. He also told her about his experience of flying on his own for the first time.

The Philippine authorities are currently carrying out a search and rescue operation for the missing two.

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According to the Arab News, the relatives of the Saudi pilot are carrying out a search and rescue operation on their own using sonar to search under the water.

The brother of the missing Saudi pilot has slammed the efforts by the Filipino authorities calling them “very weak”.

Brother of Saudi student missing in the Philippines laments ‘weak’ search effort pic.twitter.com/AoI2Bkb2on

— New York TIME (@NewYorkTIME5) May 27, 2019

He also said that he has found a bag containing the instructor’s belongings but not his brother’s. This led him to believe that his brother may have been kidnapped.

The Saudi Embassy in the Philippines has tweeted a statement on the case two days ago.

(بيان صحفي)
بشأن المواطن /عبدالله خالد الشريف المفقود في #الفلبين أثناء رحلة طيران تدريبية#أنت_الاهم #السفارة_السعودية_بالفلبين pic.twitter.com/lcv8dfUnCS

— السفارة في الفلبين (@KSAembassyPH) May 25, 2019