Search for missing Saudi national continues off Philippines coast

Abdullah Al Sharif was taking flying lessons with a local instructor when their aircraft crashed

The Mindoro strait where a plane carrying Saudi citizen Abdullah Al Sharif and his Filipino flying instructor crashed.

Saudi Arabia said search efforts continued to find a Saudi trainee pilot who went missing with his Filipino instructor off the coast of the Philippines after their plane crashed in the sea 10 days ago.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines had told the Manila Times that debris found in the Mindoro Strait near the South China Sea was identified as belonging to the Beechcraft Baron that had Abdullah Al Sharif and Jose Yapparcon on board.

A statement by the Saudi embassy in the Philippines said the search and rescue operation was ongoing, adding that the embassy had refrained from commenting about the incident according to the wishes of Mr Al Sharif’s family.

“The embassy will continue, God willing, to exert all efforts to look for the citizen in co-ordination with the foreign ministry of the Philippines … and related Filipino authorities,” the statement said.

However, Abdulmajid Al Sharif, a brother of the missing trainee pilot, told the Saudi newspaper Arab News that the family had received no co-operation from the embassy and described the Filipino search efforts as "very weak".