A story of a hero - Captain Bahinting

A story of a hero - Captain Bahinting

I just want to share the story of a brave pilot of a twin-engine, four-seater Piper Seneca plane, Capt. Jessup M. Bahinting who skippered the ill-fated plane bound to Naga City from Cebu City that crashed in Masbate with Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo on board. Capt. Bahinting is tagged as an 'avid pilot'.

Just two days ago before the crash was reported, I read from Yahoo News about his futile effort to save a 36 year old zookeeper from Cebu City, Philippines who was bitten by a cobra. To recap what I read from the news: Ronaldo Aventurado, a zookeeper of Cebu City Zoo, was bitten by a stray cobra. He tried to grab the snake but it slipped and bit his left hand. He was able to suck the venom but accidentally swallowed it causing him to felt unconscious and was rushed to a hospital. The worst thing is, the hospital doesn't have any anti-venom available which is badly needed within 24 hours for the patient to survive. All efforts were done to contact any resources in Manila for the anti-venom but to no avail. It was reported that Camiguin, an island 162 kilometers southeast away from Cebu has available anti-venom and that need to be picked up. Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia asked some assistance from a local private airline based in Lapu-Lapu, Aviatour, where Capt. Jessup M. Bahinting is the Chairman and CEO. Aviatour was able to extend their assistance despite of the weather problem and got the anti-venom that was able to stabilize the patient's condition.

A brief description about Capt. Bahinting

Bahinting was an active disaster relief worker. He owns Aviatour and served as a pastor who was reportedly using his flying skills and airplanes to extend help when needed. He and his wife were supposedly be celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary this coming December14, 2012. His wife reported that everytime he had a mission flight, he is noted as kissing her as if it was his last kiss to her. But last Saturday was really his last flight and it was so sad to say that he was not able to kiss her because he was in a hurry preparing to fly Secretary Robredo to Naga City.

Besides of being a pastor, he was also the area supervisor for the Visayas of the Grace Communion International since 1984. He gave up his salary as a pastor in 1997 and decided to keep on serving the ministry without any salary at all.  

Bahinting's wife was quoted as saying - “He is really a charitable person, a man of God. He was in Guinsaugon (Southern Leyte) after the landslide and in Negros Oriental after the earthquake. He was in Marikina after Typhoon Sendong. He was in Iligan City and then Cagayan de Oro City during the flashfloods.”

The Bahintings were developing a beach resort in the hometown of Margarita, Ginatilan, Cebu - the hometown also of a Filipino Catholic martyr, Pedro Calungsod.

After a thorough search and rescue operations, the bodies of Secretary Robredo, Capt. Bahinting and his Nepalese co-pilot Kshitiz Chand, were finally retrieved from the fuselage of the ill-fated plane last Tuesday morning, August 21, 2012.

I sympathize with the families of the victims. I wrote this article in honor of Captain Bahinting not because that he is a veteran pilot but because I myself was a student pilot then. It is not really an assurance of how skillful you are as a pilot to save your life and the lives of others. Life will continue to be a mystery and death as well. 

Any thoughts to ponder you may want to share? Please feel free to post comment. 

Search and rescue operation images:

Image courtesy of Inquirer.net

Image courtesy of GMANetwork.com

Image courtesy of  ph.news.yahoo.com

Image courtesy of  ph.news.yahoo.com

Image courtesy of abs-cbnnews.com

Image courtesy of gulfnews.com

Image courtesy of  businessmirror.com.ph

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