Farm Fresh Malaysian director killed in helicopter crash in Pililla, Rizal

Farm Fresh Milk Malaysia announced that its farm director, Jacob Mathan, was one of the casualties in the helicopter crash in Pililla, Rizal that left two dead.

"Our very own Jacob, a key and much-loved member of our Farm Fresh family, passed away at 7:30 a.m. this [March 3] morning, when the helicopter he traveled in crashed in Pililla, Rizal Province, Philippines," the company's managing director Loi Tuan Ee wrote in a letter posted to the Farm Fresh Malaysia Facebook page.

According to the Rizal Police Provincial Office, the crash occurred at 7:27 a.m. There were five people on board the civilian helicopter, a Bell 505 that was en route from Manila to Quezon Province, and they were taken immediately to the Rizal Provincial Hospital in Morong.

Pililla Mayor John Masinsin told the media that one passenger was declared dead at the crash site, while another passed away at the hospital. He said that one of the fatalities was a foreign national.

According to an ABS-CBN News report, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines is looking into what led to the crash.

Shawn Pu, the CEO of Farm Fresh Philippines, was also injured in the incident. Loi said that he is now in stable condition.

'A genuinely good person'

Loi shared that Mathan began working in Farm Fresh as a university intern 13 years ago.

"He showed a strong sense of responsibility, great aptitude to learn and most importantly, he was a genuinely good person," he wrote.

"Jacob has left us too soon. It has been a devastating day for me personally; I have still not come to terms that Jacob is no longer with us. Time will soon soften the blow, but no matter how much time passes, I would like Jacob to be remembered always, as an exemplary and invaluable staff of Farm Fresh."