PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines -- Intensified search and rescue operations have been launched for two Philippine Air Force pilots and 49 fishermen, including 11 Vietnamese and 12 Chinese, missing in the South China Sea.

"The search and rescue operation in the area is now not only for the missing plane but also for other vessels and crewmen," Colonel Jose Tony E. Villarete, commander of the 570th Composite Tactical Wing, said on Wednesday.

He said a Navy Islander plane was already on its way to Pag-asa Island in the disputed Spratlys chain to search for the missing fishermen and pilots.

Lieutenant Colonel Jacinto de Vera, Western Command public information officer, said a task group headed by Philippine Coast Guard Captain George Ursabia has been formed to undertake the search.

The missing fishermen are the 26 Filipino crewmen of the F/B Vir Ana, which capsized in the area last November 22, the 11 Vietnamese whose boat was reported sinking around the time the Filipinos went missing, and the 12 Chinese whose fishing vessel was reported by the Chinese embassy to have capsized off the Kalayaan Island Group.

On November 26, the S-211 jet piloted by Air Force Captains Gavino Mercado Jr. and Bonifacio L. Soriano III on a mission to search for the missing Filipino fishermen failed to return to base here.

The missing pilots’ plane lost radio contact with their lead plane, another S-211 piloted by Captains Ryan Sigin and Alfred Sarmiento some 15 nautical miles southeast of Pag-asa Island, Villarete said.

The two aircraft took off from the Antonio Bautista Air Base here at 8:45 a.m. on November 26 with a companion plane in response to a distress call from a Batangas-based fishing fleet that had reported 28 of its crewmen missing near Pag-asa Island at the height of typhoon “Lando.”

The fishing fleet had 87 crewmen on board three separate vessels, one of which sank west of Pag-asa.

Some crewmen were reportedly rescued by a passing Chinese fishing vessel. This vessel is different from the one reported missing.