PAF grounds all ‘Balikatan’ craft

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The Philippine Air Force (PAF) has grounded all its aircraft participating in the "Balikatan 02-2" air exercises here, pending the result of a probe into the crash of a helicopter gunship Friday night.

PAF officials ruled out yesterday the possibility that the MG-520 helicopter was hit by enemy fire, saying the crash was probably caused by engine failure.

The helicopter crashed while attempting to land on the runway of the Haribon aviation complex here at 6:35 p.m.

Pilots 1st Lt. Raymund Acido and 1st Lt. Sheila Grace Vicente suffered minor injuries. The two have been declared out of danger by doctors and will soon be rejoining the Balikatan exercises.

Investigators from the chopper’s mother unit – the 15th Strike Unit at Sang-ley Point in Cavite – have yet to complete their probe, but have indicated that mechanical failure was the probable cause of the crash.

Early this year, a US air force C-130 cargo plane was hit by ground fire while flying over the Cordillera mountains for the Balance Piston military exercises. No one was hurt in the incident.

PAF Col. William Hotchkiss, deputy commander of the 600th Air Base Wing here, said they have grounded all 27 remaining MG-520s along with other types of aircraft involved in Balikatan 02-2, pending the crash probe, which could take two or three more days.

The PAF has committed 20 aircraft for the joint war drills with US troops. Those actively being used are two MG-250s, two SF-260 trainer planes, two F-5 fighter jets, an OV-10 Bronco turbo plane, a Huey helicopter and a C-130 cargo plane.

US marine 1st Lt. Neil Peterson, an officer of the Balikatan information bureau, said the US air force will go on with its air exercises as scheduled. How-ever, exercises to be conducted with PAF aircraft will have to be rescheduled.

The US military had flown in 36 aircraft for the Balikatan exercises.

PAF Col. Danilo Ferrer, co-director of the Balikatan events planning office, said all Philippine military aircraft had to be grounded since there was a possibility that the engine of the crashed chopper could have been affected by tainted aviation fuel. US aircraft in the Balikatan exercises use aviation fuel from a different source.

"Two Huey helicopters at Villamor Air Base and a C-130 plane at Mactan have been asked not to fly to Clark until the investigation into the crash has been completed," Ferrer said.

The Philippine military obtained 24 MG-520s from MacDonald-Douglas in 1990. Four more were purchased in 1995.

Armed with machine guns and rockets, the helicopter has proven to be effective in counter-insurgency operations. – With Ric Sapnu