It’s time to create a disaster probe body

By now everyone has said his or her piece about that dramatic crash last Monday morning of that aging Fokker F-27 belonging to the Laoag International Air (LIA) Flt. No. 585. The plane plunged into the murky waters of the Manila Bay just minutes after it took off at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on its way to Basco, Batanes. Some 14 passengers perished in that crash, while 16 passengers cheated death. If you ask me, it’s just another day of excitements in the so-called Disaster Capital of the World!

What is sad to note is that, this crash apparently brought people to immediately jump into conclusions long even before crash investigators could begin their investigation on what could have caused the crash. First, we heard from Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos and later from Sen. Joker Arroyo that the plane was too old, the Air Transportation Office (ATO) shouldn’t have allowed it to fly. Another quick-on-the-draw fellow is LIA owner Capt. Paul Ng who says that his plane was sabotaged by competitors… that water was mixed with the fuel. Sabotage? If you ask me, the owner of LIA is selling this theory in the hope that he can escape responsibility for the victims of this crash.

Mind you, most modern passenger planes (even a 19-year-old Fokker F-27) can go on flying even on one engine. In fact, I recall my cousin who used to fly for PAL, also trained on Fokker planes and he told me that they practiced taking off and landing with only one engine running. But Rep. Imee Marcos is demanding an investigation, believing that the cause of the crash has something to do with the age of the Fokker aircraft.

Of course, Air Transportation Office (ATO) chief Adelberto Yap declared quite rightly that the airworthiness of planes is not measured by its age, but by its maintenance program. Yessir, if you didn’t know, there are many old World War II-vintage Dakota’s or Douglas DC-3s still flying out there because they are maintained very well.

You don’t believe General Yap? Well, take the case of American’s most famous bomber, the aging but venerable Boeing B-53 which figured prominently in Desert Storm 10 years ago and very recently during the bombing of Afghanistan. These planes were built in the early ’50s and they’re still very airworthy and considered an important part of America’s air might. Indeed, planes can be built tough and can fly for years if they are maintained properly.

I reckon, we’ll find out what’s wrong with that aircraft by looking at its maintenance record – that’s if LIA was keeping any! While the black box was recovered from the ill-fated aircraft and can be used to help investigators find out what could have caused the crash, the fact that both pilots survived this disaster is of outmost importance to investigators to get into what went wrong with Flt. No. 585.

Meanwhile, this crash brings us once again to the real problem about disaster in the Philippines, which Congress has yet to act – the need to create a new government agency akin to one operating in the US. It’s called the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), If you ask me, this body should have been created a long time ago. After all, the Philippines has the unenviable and distinct "privilege" of being dubbed "The Disaster Capital of the World."

Surely by now, we should have had a body that knows how to investigate air, sea and land disaster! When we make one, I’m sure our senators or congressmen would think twice before opening their mouths in judgment as to what they believe may have caused a particular disaster.

Right now, with regards to aircraft accidents, the ATO is the agency that looks into the maintenance records of civil aircraft, grades them, checks their pilots and handles crash investigations. In the US, their equivalent of the ATO is the Federal Air Agency (FAA) and mind you, the FAA has nothing to do with investigating air accidents.

I have written articles about this matter and talked with former ATO chief Jake Ortiga, a former pilot himself, and with current ATO chief Bert Yap and they both agree that Congress should create this new investigating agency. Let’s hope that this crash should be a wake-up call for Congress to enact a law creating the Philippine version of the NTSB. Perhaps, we should put one over the American NTSB by including ship and land disaster under this new agency. So far this one, the ball is new in the hands of Congress! Calling Cebu City Rep. Raul del Mar.

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Last week, coup rumors once more resurfaced, obviously designed to scare people that the military might take over the reins of government. Of course, I didn’t give this much thought, not even a line in this corner because I strongly believe that the military today is the soldier of the Filipino people. So let’s leave this ugly talk and concentrate on more important matters

I mean, we should concentrate on securing many of our vulnerable installations like power lines and power plants. Thus, it was comforting to read in the papers that the Southern Luzon Unified Command and the Philippine National Police Region IV conducted exercises aimed to secure, prevent and thwart any potential terrorist threat against the NPA in the power plants in Batangas, which serves the Luzon grid.

But what about here in the Visayas? How come I haven’t heard about any such exercise here? I certainly hope that our military has secured the geothermal power plants in Tongonan, Leyte and in Palimpinon, Negros Oriental and those thermal plants in Naga. If there’s anything that could plunge Cebu into darkness and our ceremony on its knees, it is a successful rain in any of these power plants. We’re not worried against any potential terrorist threats by the al-Qaeda or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but by the NPA. Mind you, the NPA’s have been quite busy in the northern part of Cebu island, raiding the Sogod municipal hall or police station. Surely, these days, they must be planning a raid in any power plants located in Cebu, Leyte or in Negros island.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.