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A FILIPINO along with six others were killed in helicopter crash on
an oil rig some 40 miles off Dubai on Thursday, the Department of
Foreign Affairs reported Friday.
The Foreign Affairs department named the
Filipino victim as Diosdado Buhangin, a native of Southern Leyte.
The Middle East Online news website report said
Buhangin, 48, died when their helicopter, an Aerogulf Bell 212,
crashed on takeoff from an oil platform in the Gulf.
The other victims were two Indians, an American,
a Briton, a Pakistani and a Venezuelan.
The Foreign Affairs department and the
Philippine Consulate in Dubai already assured the victim’s family
that they would be given enough assistance for the repatriation of
Buhangin’s remains.
“During takeoff, the helicopter crashed onto
the deck of the Resilient, the Maersk jack-up drilling rig. The
aircraft then broke up and fell into the sea,” London-based
Petrofac, an international oil and gas facilities service provider,
said in a statement.
But not all was bad news for migrant Filipinos
on Friday, as the Agence France-Presse reported that the remaining
Filipino seafarers who were abducted while on board the
Malaysian-owned MT Bunga Melati Dua are now safe.
“All remaining crew members are safe and are
taken care of. Negotiations are ongoing to secure the safe release
of the crew members,” the Malaysian shipping company that owned
the hijacked vessel said in a statement.
The Bunga Melati Dua was seized in the Gulf of
Aden last month. The ships’ 39-man crewmembers included 10
Filipinos.
However, a Filipino crewmember died in an
accident when the vessel was being boarded by the hijackers.
-- Llanesca T. Panti
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