Probe on Sunday's plane crash begins

CEBU, Philippines - The Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board has started investigating the plane crash that killed a Norwegian passenger last Sunday.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Regional Director Agnes Udang told The FREEMAN that AAIIB investigators headed by Johhny Ray visited the Air Transportation Office at the Mactan Airport to retrieve official records of the flight.

They also took evidence from the crash site for further analysis in Manila and gathered statements from witnesses in the area.

The ill-fated Cessna 172 left Mactan International Airport and was bound for Camiguin when it crashed at 08:15 a.m.Udang said Ray’s group also asked ATO personnel and other airport personnel to assist in the investigation.

Udang said the investigation results and recommendation(s) of the investigators will be the basis of new measures, which will be put in place to prevent the same incident from happening again.

Philippine National Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz Jr. said that initial investigation had revealed that when the Cessna 172 aircraft was about to land at Camiguin airport, the pilot allegedly lost control of the plane, which accidentally hit the top of the coconut trees and crashed to the ground in Barangay Baylaw, Mambajao, Camiguin.

As a result, the pilot, Christian Ceasar Febricos, and the Norwegian passenger, Racquel Estrande, were pronounced dead soon after the doctors came to the spot. The co-pilot and other two Norwegian passengers suffered injuries and were under observation at a hospital at present.

The five-seater Cessna 172 was ferrying five passengers including a three-year-old child at the time of the accident.

The three people injured were identified as Indonesian co-pilot Nurmala Dewi, and Norwegian Lance Strande, 56, and three-year-old child Jensola. They were being treated at the Camiguin General Hospital but were brought back to Cebu late afternoon yesterday.

The flight manifest showed that the aircraft, RP-C209, listed Dewi as co-pilot and reportedly a student while Cebrecus was pilot-in-command.

Meanwhile, amidst the controversy, Mactan Cebu International Airport General Manager Paul Villarete announced yesterday that MCIA has been certified recently as the first and the only airport in the entire Philippines to have complied with safety standards and requirements of an airdrome.

Villarete said the certificate was issued by the Civil Aviation Authority in the Philippines on June last year. The airport passed the audit last December.

“We are proud to maintain the same level of preparedness and safety standard,” he said.

To avoid a similar incident like the crashing of the Cessna plane, Villarete urged all private plane operators to check their planes personally. This is reportedly stipulated in the rules and procedures of aviation.

“Since Aviatour is privately owned as for me it should be checked but soon we will know the recommendation of the CAAP,” Villarete said.  (FREEMAN)