Air Philippines crash remembered; probe pressed

DAVAO CITY – Relatives of the 131 people who died in the country’s worst aviation disaster yesterday asked President Arroyo to look into the long-stalled probe of the Easter weekend crash last year.

The relatives made the appeal as they commemorated the first anniversary of the crash of Air Philippines Flight 541 at nearby Samal Island.

"We would really like the President to give attention to the investigation of the case. We want honest-to-goodness findings. We are demanding justice for our loved ones who perished in the crash," one of the relatives told The STAR.

Mrs. Arroyo herself, who was then vice president and social welfare secretary, deplored as "speculative" the findings of aviation officials on the crash.

Flight 541, a 29-year-old Boeing 737-200 plane, was about to land at Davao airport on Holy Wednesday last year when it slammed into a coconut plantation in Mt. Kamanlangan in Barangay San Isidro, killing all its 124 passengers and seven crew members.

Mrs. Arroyo personally led a team of experts in conducting critical incident stress debriefing here shortly after the crash to help the relatives of the victims cope with the sudden loss of their loved ones.

A day after the crash, aviation authorities eyed pilot error as the cause of the accident. But the possibility of sabotage lingers after witnesses on the ground claimed they heard four explosions before the crash.

Air Philippines officials also reported receiving a call from a man who threatened to blow up two more planes.

Forensics experts were not able to identify the bodies of all the passengers because many of them were mangled and burned beyond recognition. They were buried in a mass grave at the crash site.

The airline reportedly offered to increase the insurance benefits to the relatives of the crash from P600,000 to P3.5 million but the relatives turned down the offer unless a thorough investigation is conducted.

The relatives have organized the Flight 541 Assistance Foundation, which also organized yesterday’s commemoration rites, including a picket at the Davao offices of the Air Transportation Office (ATO) and presidential assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza.

The commemoration of the crash was kicked off by an early morning marathon and tree-planting activities led by Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez and "running" priest Fr. Robert Reyes.

An 18-kilometer route was divided into 131 stations, each dedicated to the 131 victims, for the marathon that started at the Samal City Hall in Barangay Peñaplata and ended at the crash site, where the tree-planting was conducted before a Catholic Mass.