‘Third-party’ investigators start probe of NAIA-3’s collapsed ceiling

Independent "third-party" investigators began looking yesterday into the collapse of a 100-square-meter portion of the ceiling at the yet-to-be-opened Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.

Experts from the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP) agreed with initial police findings that ruled out sabotage.

Prof. Joseph Ramil Manalo, ASEP secretary and a professor at De La Salle University College of Engineering, said that from their initial inspection of the wreckage yesterday, sabotage had been ruled out and the task now was to pinpoint the defect in the ceiling’s construction.

"Sabotage, we can rule that out already... Sigurado may depekto pero kung ano ’yun (For sure there was a defect, but what it was) we still need to investigate further," he told reporters after he and his fellow ASEP engineers made a lengthy inspection of the debris at NAIA-3’s lobby.

Manalo declined to give more results of their initial analysis.

"Right now, that’s what I can say," he said. "We still have to make a more detailed inspection," he said.

ASEP, it was learned, was the outside group that the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) had settled on to conduct the third-party investigation into the accident.

Aside from the ASEP investigation, Takenaka Corp., the Japanese firm contracted by the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) consortium to build the NAIA-3 in 1998, and an MIAA and Department of Transportation and Communications engineering team are also undertaking an investigation.

The MIAA/DOTC team intend to conduct a complete structural safety assessment of NAIA-3 in the aftermath of last Monday’s incident.

The collapse of the ceiling resulted in a postponement of the NAIA-3’s "soft opening" scheduled yesterday.

Japanese engineering experts from Takenaka, who arrived Wednesday, also conducted a thorough inspection of the collapsed ceiling yesterday, along with the ASEP experts.

The three Takenaka experts are Suzumo Sato, a ceiling expert, Yukyo Sasaki, an engineering expert, and Akira Shimizu, a structural engineering expert.

The two groups were escorted to the area by a group of MIAA officials led by general manager Alfonso Cusi and accompanied by engineer Octavio Lina, MIAA assistant general manager for operations, Florencio Montalbo, MIAA assistant general manager for Terminal 3, and other MIAA officials.

Cusi told reporters that, for now, they cannot give a date for another "soft opening" or test run of NAIA-3.

"We really want to settle all these questions on the structural integrity of NAIA Terminal 3 first before we think of holding a test run," he said.

"Foremost in our minds is the safety and security of the passengers that will use this facility in the event we open it to full commercial operations."

Cusi confirmed that they brought in the ASEP as their third-party investigator.

"They have the expertise to find out what caused the collapse and make an assessment of the structural integrity of Terminal 3," he said.

Cusi said MIAA still believes that NAIA-3 was structurally safe, but pointed out that what they were concerned about were the architectural details and fixtures in and around the facility.

The Office of the Solicitor General has already filed a motion with the Pasay City regional trial court seeking to stop the payment of P3 billion owed to Piatco, he added.

Cusi said the OSG will make sure that the incident was noted by the Pasay City RTC since it was tasked by the Supreme Court to determine the amount of just compensation that the government must pay Piatco for possession of NAIA-3.

"We have all these complicated things covered," he said.