‘Pilot error caused Laoag Airlines Flight 585 crash’

Investigators have ruled that pilot error caused the crash of Laoag International Airlines (LIA) Flight 585 on Manila Bay last Nov. 11, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) announced yesterday.

DOTC Undersecretary Arturo Valdez, who headed the probe, said the plane’s two surviving pilots — Capt. Bernie Crisostomo and co-pilot First Officer Joseph Gardiner — failed to notice that the fuel valves were closed.

"This means there was no supply of fuel to the engine. The switch was closed. The engine broke down because of fuel starvation," Valdez said.

DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza partly blamed the pilots’ fatal lapse on the "principal officers" of LIA, whom he did not identify.

"The culture which is strongly influenced by the principal officers of Laoag International Airlines is, to say the least, very conducive to breakdown of the discipline required by the aviation industry," Mendoza said in a statement. He did not elaborate.

Mendoza ordered the continued suspension of LIA’s operations until the Senate decides whether or not to revoke the airline’s franchise.

Alvin Yater, LIA assistant vice president for sales and marketing, said his company viewed the suspension order and the investigation’s findings "with grave concern and regret."

He said the airline’s management should not likewise be blamed because it exercised "due diligence" in the hiring of pilots and insisted that the LIA’s planes "were properly and efficiently maintained for commercial flight operations by management."

"We should not penalize the people in remote areas and operators of small airlines just because of one pilot error which happens to even the most efficient and biggest airlines in the world," Yater said in a statement.

LIA will appeal the suspension order "in the interest of justice and fairness, and in the interest of the people served by our airline," he said.

Nineteen of the 34 passengers and crew were killed when the twin-engine Fokker-27 ditched into Manila Bay at around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 11, shocking early-morning joggers and promenaders.

The pilots said both engines conked out shortly after takeoff from Manila domestic airport. An amateur video footage caught the Fokker-27 trailing dark smoke almost after takeoff.

Many of the survivors were rescued by fishermen who rushed to the scene, less than three kilometers from the back of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City.

After the plane was retrieved from the murky bottom of the bay, perplexed investigators saw that the fuel valves — which feed fuel from the tanks to the engines — were closed.

When asked about the valves, the two pilots pointed at each other as the one responsible for them. Families of the crash victims earlier said they plan to file criminal charges against the pilots and LIA’s management.

Mendoza said his department will assist the victims’ families in their claims against LIA.

LIA board chairman Paul Ng, a Malaysian, and the airline’s chief mechanic, Jimmy Tan, an Australian, are currently detained at the Bureau of Immigration for allegedly working without permits and are undergoing deportation proceedings.

Mendoza said the crash of Flight 585 likewise brought to light "indications of administrative lapses" by the Air Transportation Office and the Civil Aeronautics Board, which both regulate the country’s aviation industry.

It also revealed "countless other seemingly unrelated conditions, which if not addressed and corrected, will eventually lead to accidents of this nature," he said without elaborating.

Mendoza ordered his staff to review the "organizational structures and staffing of all agencies involved in the transport sector and, if necessary, undertake revamps, in order to bring forth the much-needed improvement to make the services of these agencies efficient and responsive in promoting the highest standard of safety and growth of the industry."

Mendoza said he would recommend to the President that an agency be formed patterned after the US National Transportation Safety Board, which will have the sole responsibility of investigating motor, land and air accidents as well as "promote programs that will instill the culture of safety in the consciousness" of Filipinos.

No custody

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals has rejected Tan’s petition that he be released to the custody of his lawyer for the duration of his deportation proceedings, the immigration bureau reported yesterday.

Bureau commissioner Andrea Domingo said the court found the petition lacked merit.

In its decision, the appellate court reversed its Jan. 6 decision ordering the bureau to release Tan to the custody of his lawyer because of a deportation order against Tan.

The bureau issued the order on the same day the Court of Appeals made its earlier decision.

"Since there is already a voluntary deportation order, we held that the order of the Bureau of Immigration, which is the office charged with administration of the laws relative to immigration and deportation, should be paramount," the court ruling said.

However, Ng, Tan and Flight 585’s two Filipino pilots are barred from leaving the country by the bureau upon the request of the crash investigators, who wanted them on hand to shed light on the tragedy.

Ng and Tan were arrested 18 days later in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, after the crash when authorities learned that the two were working without permits. Tan is also undergoing deportation proceedings.

Last month, the bureau rejected a petition from Ng and Tan that they be allowed to post bail for unspecified health reasons.

They were turned down because they were considered "flight risks" and they did not submit any certification from a reputable hospital or medical institution.

Ng was apprehended at the LIA’s main office in Laoag City while Tan was nabbed at the hangar of Laoag airport.

Domingo ordered their arrest after an investigation showed that both failed to secure the proper work permits. That violated the conditions of their stay in the country, she said. – With Rey Arquiza