Philippine air force helicopter carrying 5 crashes while en route to
help in typhoon response
[November 04, 2025]
By JIM GOMEZ
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine air force helicopter with five
personnel on board crashed Monday in the country’s south while flying to
help respond to the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which has
already left at least five people dead and set off widespread floodings
that trapped residents on roofs in some central villages.
The Super Huey chopper crashed near Loreto town in southern Agusan del
Sur province and efforts were underway to locate the air force personnel
aboard who were deployed to help provide humanitarian assistance to
provinces affected by the typhoon, the military’s Eastern Mindanao
Command said in a statement.
Military officials didn't immediately provide other details about the
crash, including the condition of the five air force personnel aboard
and what could have caused the crash.
Kalmaegi was last spotted over the coastal waters of Jordan town in the
central province of Guimaras with sustained winds of 130 kph (81 mph)
and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph). It was forecast to blow away into
the South China Sea late Tuesday or early Wednesday after hitting the
western province of Palawan.
An older villager drowned in floodwaters in Southern Leyte, where a
provincewide power outage was also reported, and another person died
after being hit by a fallen tree in central Bohol province, officials
said.
Three other people died in central Cebu province, where officials
reported flooding in several towns and villages.
Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said that
an unspecified number of residents were trapped on their roofs by
floodwaters in the coastal town of Liloan in Cebu, and added that cars
either were submerged in floods or floated in another Cebu community.
“We have received so many calls from people asking us to rescue them
from roofs and from their houses, but it’s impossible,” Pang told The
Associated Press on Tuesday morning. "There are so many debris, you see
cars floating so we have to wait for the flood to subside."
Cebu province was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on
Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when
houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
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Vehicles lie piled on after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in
Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP
Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
In Eastern Samar, one of the east-central provinces first lashed by
Kalmaegi early Tuesday, fierce wind either ripped off roofs or
damaged about 300 mostly rural shanties on the island community of
Homonhon, which is part of the town of Guiuan, but there were no
reported deaths or injuries, Mayor Annaliza Gonzales Kwan said.
“There was no flooding at all, but just strong wind,” Kwan told the
AP by telephone. “We're OK. We’ll make this through. We’ve been
through a lot, and bigger than this.”
In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical
cyclones on record, slammed ashore into Guiuan. it then raked across
the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or
missing, flattening entire villages and sweeping scores of ships
inland. Haiyan demolished about a million houses and displaced more
than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.
Before the typhoon’s landfall, disaster-response officials said that
more than 387,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern
and central Philippine provinces. Authorities warned of torrential
rains, potentially destructive winds and storm surges of up to three
meters (nearly 10 feet).
Interisland ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing
into increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers
and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard
said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each
year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than
a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most
disaster-prone countries.
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Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.
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