Philippine Plane Crash

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A passenger plane, trailing smoke from its left engine, plunged into Manila Bay and broke in two shortly after taking off from the Philippine capital today, killing at least 14 of 34 people aboard.

Sixteen people, including two Australians, were rescued while four remained unaccounted for as navy frogmen dived into waters around 11 metres (six fathoms) deep for others believed trapped in their seats in the plane, officials said.

Amateur video footage showed a trail of smoke from the left engine on the high-winged Fokker 27 plane just before it crashed into the bay, after taking off from Manila for the gambling centre of Laoag, 400 km (250 miles) north of the capital.

A woman who had been walking along Manila Bay with her children told local radio she saw the plane crash.

"First I saw black smoke, then suddenly, the tail portion split off and the rest of the plane sank into the bay. I saw one man waving a white piece of cloth. Later I could not see him any more," she said.

Several of the dead were children, including an 11-year-old boy whose body was found still bound to his seat. The plane carried 29 passengers and five crew.

"It's been three hours so the chances (of finding more survivors) are dim but in search and rescue, we're always praying for miracles," coastguard chief Vice-Admiral Ruben Lista told Manila's ANC television network.

"We've reached the plane, it was filled with water so the chances are somewhat small."

The Air Transport Office earlier said 17 were rescued, but the airplane's owners, Laoag International Airlines, said its official tally showed 16 survived, 14 were killed and the rest unaccounted for.

There were at least eight foreigners among the passengers, including at least five Australians, airline vice-president Alvin Yater told Reuters. The survivors included the pilot and co-pilot.

Around half of them were in critical condition, some unconscious.

The plane crashed about one km (half a mile) from shore three minutes after take-off from Manila on a one-hour flight to Laoag, the Air Transport Office said.

Australian survivor Steve Thompson, 25, said he saw smoke coming from the left of the aircraft.

Thompson, his arms and legs covered in bandages, told reporters the pilot warned passengers to brace before the plane went down.

"The plane crashed, that's what happened. I really don't want to talk about it," he said.

More than two dozen boats, including Navy craft, outrigger canoes belonging to fishermen and pleasure craft from the nearby Manila Yacht Club, converged on the crash site but the waters only yielded soaked luggage and metal fragments.

Divers pulled the dead body of a young boy from the sea and tenderly lifted him into the lap of a rescuer in an inflatable dinghy, who cradled the body as the boat moved away.

Thompson and fellow Australian Bryan Forester, who also survived, were among eight people with Caucasian names listed on the flight manifest.

The fate of the others was not immediately known. Air Transport chief Adelberto Yap said the pilot reported engine trouble shortly after take-off.

"He radioed the tower that he was in distress and was going to ditch," Yap told Reuters, adding there was no sign of sabotage.

Laoag is popular with tourists from China and Hong Kong. It has one of the largest casinos in the Philippines and has direct air links with Hong Kong.

The Navy used a floating crane to try to haul up the sunken plane wreckage.

"It is an F-27 Fokker. We are doing our best. We are able to dive the depth," Navy chief Victorino Hingo told local radio.

This was the second crash of a Fokker aircraft within a week. Twenty of the 22 passengers and crew died at Luxembourg's international airport on November 6 when a twin-engine Fokker 50 smashed into a field in thick fog while coming in to land.